Brighton v Palace - 27-12-80

[nicko31]

The first match I ever watch the Albion was a 3-2 win against Palace on Boxing Day 1980, almost 28,000 watched it, still one of my favs of all time, from then on it was Brighton till I die. Someone posted Peter O'Sullivan's goals on Youtube, didn't think I'd ever see it again. A lot of these supporters obviously no longer watch the Albion, I curious to hear anyone else's memories of this match..

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

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Here's the clip. Glad it brought back some good memories. Any win over Palace is a good memory!

I'm slightly puzzled why the Albion struggled so much in that season - with Robinson and Smith joining, it was clearly a much stronger squad than they had the previous season, and much more experienced in top-flight football within the squad generally. I'd be interested in what fans, like you, who were around at the time think.

 

[micheal64]

nothing compared to the previous season

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Somehow my memories of those times are not as strong as those of the 70's.

I suppose, like now, the 1st season up is always a bit 'special' and some players play above themselves in that 1st season. That also made a difference tto the Goldstone crowd. After years of thrashing teams and playing brilliant football, we were now a team trying to cut it at the very top of Englich football and having to suffer defeats and be grateful for scrapping every point. We had been spoilt on excitement and many did not want to watch more dire fare even if it was top level.

Whilst Robinson & Smith were class players, Albion had lost the talents of Ward & Lawenson.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Thanks, Freddie. Always great to hear your perspective. I get what you say about players playing above themselves in the first season. Maybe many of the First Division teams had 'figured out' how to play against the Seagulls by season two.

Thing is, in the opening three months of that 1980/81 season, the Albion were able to field Ward and Robinson together up front with Smith and Lawrenson in the same starting line-up. I know my opinion of the players' abilities is based on second-hand accounts and the limited footage around, but nevertheless, this seems like a very strong team indeed.

And when Ward did leave in mid-season, we already had Andy Ritchie lined up. Again, another top quality player. (Lawrenson only left at the end of that season for Liverpool, precipitating Mullery's resignation). 1980/81 should have been the season when we finished in the top half of the table!

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I remember it quite vividly - went with my big sister and my 3 cousins who were over from South Africa - happy days

Tony Millard anouncing the goal scorer - job for life .....

 

[Paul Skinback]

I was there too. Great game, good atmosphere. As a mere whippersnapper i was a bit miffed as to why i had to go home with spit in my hair and people throwing bottles of piss at us.
There was me thinking Brighton was a gaye old place

 

[1234andcounting]

It was a high quality division. England really did boss Europe at the time. 1979/80 - Forest were European Cup Winners (when only the league champions were entered); 1980-81 - Liverpool; 1981-82 - Aston Villa. Plus Ipswich won the UEFA Cup in 1980-81; Arsenal had been European Cup Winners Cup winners in 79-80. So, you could argue that there were four teams in Div 1 that season who had or would win a European trophy, plus one as runners up. Despite this, we beat both Ipswich and Villa at home and gave Liverpool a great game - 2-2. We played well at times, but couldn't sustain over enough matches to result in a comfortable finishing position. All of this, however, was alleviated, by the 'team of the 80s' being rubbish of the highest order and equalling (I think) the record low number of points, plus doing the double over them.

 

[micheal64]

it was a shame the north stand roof had gone , second boxing day on the trot we put three past them.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Another anti climax

STOPPED WATCHING THE ALBION IN THE FIRST YEAR IN DIV 1,FELT LIKE AN ANTI CLIMAX TO BE HONEST HOME AND AWAY THE 8 SEASONS PRIOR TO THAT,STARTED WATCHING AGAIN 2ND SEASON IN DIV 1