We All Follow the Albion

Many of us are waiting too see what will happen in the future and how long the Corona-virus will keep us hostage. It has been a rough half year, and unfortunately it does not look like it is ending anytime soon. However, it can be nice to talk to people about or, or perhaps about something completely ...

"Your pops caught you smoking, and he says, "No way!"
That hypocrite smokes two packs a day”

I am neatly folding my t-shirts, one for each day I am going to be away. Mum walks in looking stressed, “Now honey are you sure you are going to be okay for the whole week?”
I take a breath to speak.
“You’ve never even been to a sleepover.”
I take another breath
“And this Dutch Rod? Have I even met him? How long have you known him”
I take three long slow breaths.
“You can always ring me to come and get you.” She half-smiles, tilts her head a little and breathes out through a small mouth. ...

Danny Welbeck is one of those players that seems to have been around forever. He has played for six different clubs since 2008, and has also been on the international stage since 2006 when he was picked for the England U-17 side. While many people may have suspected he was nearing retirement, the Manchester-born forward is actually only 30 years old. Injury troubles have stunted Welbeck’s progress over the years, but ...

NSC is currently full of debate around whether we are under achieving and, if we are, is it Graham Potter’s fault. One thing that some have said, supposedly in Potter’s favour is that the squad of players we have are not good enough. But does that hold up? Here I go through Friday night’s team and their direct competition, player by player to see if that holds water. Let’s start with the keeper.

Mat Ryan

Too small. It’s an NSC trope with some using it ironically and others using it as a stick to beat with, but in reality it’s Ryan’s Moneyball weakness. Just as Oakland didn’t care if you threw funny or were old so long as you can get on base, so we have gone for a keeper with good reflexes and ...

Staying in the Premier League will be the priority for Brighton this season, there’s no doubt about that. But what every fan will be hoping for is a solid League Cup and FA Cup run. With the League Cup draw for rounds two and three being quite favourable for the Seagulls, there’s always a chance of avoiding the big guns until the last four. Then, as we’ve seen in past years, anything can happen at that stage. Let’s run through both competitions, starting with the most exciting cup competition ...

The sun is proudly sitting in a clear blue spring sky. All the clouds are burnt away and nothing is getting in the way of the warmth bringing joy to the world. My weekend has been a good one. Yesterday mum and I went into town and she bought be a Rolling Stones songbook, a punk songbook and one that contained a load of 80’s indie songs. This contained ...

Brighton and Hove Albion ended their 2018/19 campaign with a 4-1 loss at home to Manchester City on the final day of the season, leaving them on 36 points and manager Chris Hughton without a job. It had been a serious regression from a debut season in the Premier League that had shown real signs of being a good platform to build from. Transfers had flopped, squad morale was through the floor, the attitude and style of football was negative and a particularly poor ...

No-one has given me a hard time for weeks. School feels totally different to me now.A few weeks ago I would worry about being picked on by Kim and her friends, Whitey, Flints and that lot or any other random group from almost any year in the school. Well maybe not third years, even I am not quite pathetic enough to be bullied by third years. I suppose it still being early in the year they are all terrified of school too. Anyway, I used to fear it happening and often it would. There is nothing like telling yourself that something won’t happen when you know full well that you are lying. Now though I am beginning to believe myself when ...

“Songs about happiness murmured in dreams. When we both of us knew how the ending would be”


The day has left me shaking. I can’t tell if I am happy or sad. Something has changed.

Barely even answering mum as she asks me how my day was I make for my room and more importantly my guitar. I start to play but something is wrong, I can’t concentrate. All afternoon I have thought about two things. Firstly getting home to play my guitar, this is what I always do when I have a rough day. The other thing is going round to Manny’s house tonight. I don’t have all the details I need. I don’t know who will be there. I know where he lives because he scrawled it down ...

I am not sure when it started, or how. They are all laughing. I can feel the high pitch needles of laughter piercing my brain. I can see them looking over at me out of the corner of my eye and I just pray that it will be over soon. As they get closer I can feel their cheap bitter perfume filling my nostrils and clouding my brain. My thoughts are disrupted as the smell and laughter mix with the general classroom white noise and push me insistently towards a meltdown. I feel them crowding around me and try to look straight ahead.

I don’t understand any of this situation, I have never understood what they get out of it. They obviously enjoy it. Kim is screeching ...

“I want to be in a band. When I get to Heaven.
Anyone can play guitar,
and they won’t be nothing anymore.”

“His latest obsession.” That’s what my mum calls it. Always with that slight rolling of the eyes that hurts my heart. Mum says that I have to understand that she and dad have seen so many obsessions throughout ...

I didn’t make it back to school for a few days. mum wanted to storm up there and talk to the head! But I begged her not to. I don’t want any fuss made. I told mum that I probably just left my book somewhere. I know I didn’t... one thing about my obsessive brain is that I always know where my stuff is. If there is ever a time when something of mine is not where it should be (even if I am using said thing myself) my brain constantly monitors the situation until I can put the thing back where it belongs. As I write this, a small part of my brain is solely concentrating on reminding me to put the book ...

"Everywhere I hear the sound of marching charging feet, boy.
Because the summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy."

My acting immersion plan was far from perfect and today was one of those days where it was far from that. I have created characters that can interact with most of the adults in my life. Adults were relatively easy because they were mostly consistent. They mostly want to and tried to help me. Some of my teachers were impossible but from what i could work out they were impossible for everyone. A few of the kids at school were possible to interact with, as long as I didn't make any mistakes. Girls were another story, it was going to take me an age to work out what they are all about. When I was younger I usually found girls easier to get along ...

End of July. Normally, I’d be writing my season preview about now. The previous season would have finished in May in either spring heat or an unseasonal downpour, with a half arsed lap of honour, beer, handshakes and hugs in the bar afterwards and one final moan about train queues and sing-song on said train.

NSC would have been through several rounds of transfer market angst, including at least three posts that said “just sign a striker. ANY striker. HOW HARD CAN IT BE?” (the same posters then nowhere to be seen as the 15 million pound Dutch answer to Mark Farrington stunk out every single game). We’d ...