[Official Site] Retro Round-Up: Blackpool

Albion players celebrate during the 2013 6-1 win over Blackpool
Image by: Paul Hazlewood



Last season’s scintillating 6-1 triumph over Blackpool at the Amex last April will undoubtedly bring back fond memories. Yet rolling back the years even further, there have been plenty of spine-tingling clashes between the two seaside clubs.*
None more so than in April 1978 when a bumper crowd of 33,431 at the Goldstone watched Alan Mullery’s Brighton side defeat relegation-bound Blackpool on the last day of a superb season to hopefully reach the First Division.
While the two points weren’t enough, the sight of a graceful Peter Ward in full flow, with the ball seemingly tied to his boots, is the kind of stuff that will stay forever with Seagulls supporters at that game. You can enjoy a photo sequence of the striker going on one of his uninhibited, mesmeric runs against the Tangerines in this revealing interview with Football Handbook magazine.

---

LATEST NEWS FROM SEAGULLS.CO.UK

• Women Gallery: Charlton Athletic
• Ferret's Blackpool Tips
• Donoghue: Injuries Disrupted Us
• Women: Charlton 2 Albion 1
• Pre-Match Brief: Albion v Blackpool

---

Easily outpaced by Wardy for the first goal was Peter Suddaby, a 30 year-old defender facing the end of his career in the lower divisions. Yet two years later, the centre-back was making a tremendous contribution to help the Seagulls stay in the top flight, as Shoot! Magazine highlighted.
Suddaby is one of only a handful of players who have joined the Albion from Blackpool. Others include Paul Fuschillo and Billy McEwan, who both arrived at the Goldstone in February 1974 in a £15,000 deal sewn up by Clough and Taylor. As for Eric Potts, he had previously played as an amateur for the Seasiders, before making his name with Oswestry Town and Sheffield Wednesday. However, after arriving at the Goldstone in 1977, his stay was brief. In that classic end-of-season match in 1978, Potts made his last Albion appearance, in his then familiar role as substitute.
It was a decade before Albion faced the ‘Pool again, this time as a Third Division fixture. You can find the programme for the Goldstone match from September 1987 in Ian Hine’s Seagulls Programmes site.
Strangely, Barry Lloyd’s side contrived to lose 3-1 at home, yet win by the same scoreline in the return match at Bloomfield Road in February 1988, partly thanks to a superb 20 yard free-kick by John Crumplin, his first ever goal for the Seagulls.*
Despite being a ‘football genius’ to many, Crumplin never gained England honours, unlike fellow right-winger Sir Stanley Matthews, one of four Blackpool players that played in England’s 6-3 humiliation by Hungary in 1953. Former Brighton Boys and Sussex Schools footballer Dennis Slade recalls the day Sir Stan and his England team mates visited Brighton as they prepared for an international at Wembley.
In the 1990s, there have been many goal-fests between Brighton and Blackpool. Here’s Mark Flatts and a Kurt Nogan double securing a 3-2 victory at the Goldstone in January 1994.*
One season later, it was two goals a-piece in each fixture. April 1995 saw Blackpool arrived at the Goldstone with a slender chance of promotion, as long as they didn’t drop any more points. In terms of play-off hopes, goals from Paul McCarthy and John Byrne pretty much ended the Tangerine Dream.
Here’s hoping for a kinder day to play-off hopefuls in Sussex today!
UPCOMING HOME FIXTURES*






Original article