Now that the Falmer decision is close at hand...

[The Large One]

...and hopefully we can soon draw to a close over 10 years of campaigning for (a) the removal of the Archer/Bellotti/Stanley board (b) the return to Brighton after playing in Gillingham and (c) a positive decision on Falmer, perhaps it would be good to look back on how we have handled ourselves.

In short, name the single best and single worst memory from the campaigning...

I'll start..

Worst: The sheer spiteful, ignorant, ambivalence the then board treated us with, and how I wanted so much more to hurt them, yet couldn't do that.

Best: When it comes to football supporter campaigning - f*** it, we wrote the book. The single best one was the first Fans United Day in 1997. Foggy day, thousands of fans from other clubs all joined as one, and a 5-0 win to boot.

What about everyone else?

 

[withdeanwombat]

to add to the above,


The bus trip to Gillingham,and the ignominy at having to be ingratiated to another club through the stunning incompetence and cavalier approach of the asset strippers.

Best....best and most innovative supporters in the land.

Pray we can number Prescott amongst them soon.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Worst: Mansfield at home, boycott day. Nearly bursting into tears as I handed my season ticket over top whomever was collecting them to give out to those who could not be persuaded to stay out. One elderly gent saying 'I just want to watch the football' summed up how everyone felt whilst someone tried to persuade him to stay out with us. Very sad day.

Best: Bellotti having to leave the Goldstone in the face of thousands of people jeering him. The f***ing PRICK.

 

[Bwian]

Worst was at Leyton Borient when one of their gorillas dressed as stewards told my g/f that she couldn't take some A4 sized posters into the ground because they were dangerous :tosser

Best? There have been many great (in a perverse way) moments and as you say-we have become THE masters of intelligent and persistent campaigning. Particularly liked the march from Brighton Station to the Goldstone-especially when the police controlling the march led the front of the group past George Street and looked horrified when the remaining few thousands dashed up George Street A classic moment for me amongst many classic moments.

 

[Wardy]

Worse - The way that the FA have still not done anything constructive to stop what happened to us from taking place again.

Best - May be not the best but most important was the away trip to Hereford getting that point that kept us in the league. I cannot help but feel should we have gone down we would have struggled to get where we are today.

 

[bhafc99]

Worst:
– Sitting in the public gallery when Simon Valder got sentenced for threatening Bellotti, and hearing his mum cry.
– Those interminable days waiting for something positive to come out of the Centre for Dispute Resolution talks, which truly felt like the last chance.
– Being 11 points adrfit in December and, almost, wanting it to get so bad the FA took more notice.
– Paul Scally phoning me to tell me how wonderful Bill Archer was. At that point I started to fear Archer would find a way of keeping control.


Best:
– Hereford, naturally.
– The North Stand on Fans Utd day. And all those 'the last night game', 'the last game ever' Goldstone moments. Have never ever been so tense at a football match as in those days, and doubt I ever will again.
– And, perversely, the filming of Goodbye Goldstone, when I managed a corking comment about Jo Bellotti's dandruff as the floor manager came out with the broom (sadly before the cameras started to roll). Well, I was directly behind her and it was minging. Got the biggest laugh of the day. Actually, the only laugh of the day.

 

[Chicken Run]

Worst
Last game ever at the Goldstone

Best

First league game back in Brighton, what a day

 

[surrey jim]

Worst: Last game i saw at Goldstone

Best: The support we've had, and Belotti leaving

 

[Lush]

So many worsts, so many bests, but I have to say that the one thing I am looking forward to is never having to STAND UP IF I WANT FALMER EVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN.

 

[Wardy]

So many worsts, so many bests, but I have to say that the one thing I am looking forward to is never having to STAND UP IF I WANT FALMER EVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN.

Looking forward to singing at the Wolves game...

"Stand-up we've got Falmer"

 

[Brixtaan]

Worst-The cordon at Palace last time- red mist descending even now.

Best-Marching up park lane

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Best - sharing the WHOLE experience with thousands of Albion fans.

Personal low point ... having a conversation (back in 1996) with the then "Councillor" Bellotti about "what was wrong with the Albion" and not being able to deck him when I heard him tell me that it was "the lack of commitment from the players".

Personal high ... getting MY record into the Top Twenty. OK, I was just part of the chorus, but - hey! - that was the childhood dream of millions of kids. And we did it.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Have to admit, I'm more sick and tired of us being a 'campaigning' club than I am uplifted by any wonderful spirit of togetherness engendered over the 10 years.

Best feeling: Helping Donny demonstrate up there season 1997-98, I think. It was all still so raw then, you really wanted to help them.

Worst: Every setback, and every moment between now and a 'Yes'.

 

[Lawro's Lip]

Hopefully the best is yet to come!

Falmer YES.

 

[Muhammed - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

worst....sitting on the steps of the north stand at 6.00pm over an hour after the last game not believing i was never going to come back.......then realising id lost the keys to my fuckin car and couldnt get back to pompey. the best? fans united day especially the "thank you for coming" chant and the applause that followed...and the vision of that chelsea bloke stood with his back to the pitch for most of the game leading the singing. oh yeh, the 2 coach loads of lincoln fans....bloody good show lincoln!

 

[B.M.F]

Worst for me had to be the day the bulldozers entered our home and started to dig up the hallowed turf to put in a f***ing superstore. Also having to defend bellotti ( I was a steward ) when all I really wanted to do was deck the c**t ( I did accidently let slip which door people shoud try and get through to get close to him though )

Best moments would have to be a mixture of things, Hereford The March in London ( missed the Brighton one ), Being back in Brighton even if it is at an athletics track, Fans United, The Wrexham Collection last season in the snow and rain but last and not least would have to be the bonding and unity of a group of fans that just want to stop terrible things like has happened to us ever happening again along with the friends I have made along the way.

Life is going to be so boring when we get Falmer

 

[Yorkie]

The worst thing for me was being 250 miles away and not being able to do anything at all except start writing letters when the campaigning started.

The best for me is being able to join in the campaigning and of course getting back to Sussex so that I can be part of it all again.

 

[Henfield One]

Worst : After the Orient home game and the horrible feeling that the FA would dock us even more points after the mad butcher from Burgess Hill's antics.

Best: Clearly yet to come. But for now, I'll settle with the Division 3 Championship. We had turned the corner, we were now a successful Championship winning Club. We had fought to keep our Club and that was our first reward.

Hereford was of course outstanding, but the day was marred for me by Bellotti going and being typically obnoxious to me and the Police Commander just after our Grandstand bit.

But I hope the best is yet to come.

WE WILL WIN!

 

[Basil Fawlty]

Worst- travelling to Gillingham and back, and going to Barnet on a rainy afternoon.

Best- the 2 championships and surviving in the championship last season, watching BZ score 80 odd goals, going to Hereford and Robbie Reinalt scoring the equaliser to keep us in the football league, i've never been so nervous in my entire life.

 

[fleet]

Worst
- having to live through this for so long that we, and everyone else in the land, are sick to death of it.
-the pitch invasion and watching people break the goalposts at the Goldstone.
-Watching the worst team we ever had play at Gillingham.

Best times were the ones at the Goldstone - whistles at the Hull game and the fact that there is a team spirit amongst our fan base that has come from the misery that we have seen over the last decade.