Stato
Well-known member
- Dec 21, 2011
- 6,583
I’ve just listened to Mullers schooling Jim White and Dean Ashton on TalkSport.
He makes the point that Brighton’s promotion campaign has been 92 games. The players have been dealing with the pressure since going top of the league on the first Friday of last season. The way they responded to the heart-breaking end to 2015/16 has been an inspiration.
It should be noted that, although our form faltered after the goal of promotion was achieved, we were ahead of Newcastle because their form had faltered in just the same way over the three previous games. We and they both lost a game we would have expected to win (Bristol City/Ipswich), tripped up in difficult away game (Norwich/Wednesday) and drew a game we could have won (Villa/Leeds). At the time each of us was doing this, the other was taking maximum points from their three corresponding games. I think that the comparison between when the teams stumbled points to the different types of pressure they were experiencing.
Newcastle’s expensive team were under the pressure of expectation. The fear of potential failure when only success is acceptable must have been felt right up to the point where promotion was finally confirmed. At that point, they relaxed, played better and they won their last three.
Brighton, having been scrapping for every point for nearly two years, were used to the pressure and scrapped for the promotion points when they had to. The wins at QPR, Wolves and Wigan were hard won not necessarily through massively superior quality, but through an incredible will to succeed.
The relaxation that Brighton felt after confirming promotion had the opposite effect to that of Newcastle because they were in contrasting positions. In our case the pressure was driving rather than hampering our efforts. The players tried to get the hunger back for the Villa game and got so close, but just missed. That will hurt all of us for a while, but nobody who understands what has been achieved at this club would ever make Ashton’s stupid claim that we have been let down. We all know that the Championship is utterly unforgiving and that no team (unless selected by David Wagner apparently) is going to let you have anything for free.
The win against Wigan let out the pressure on something that has been bottled up throughout everything that the club, players, fans and community have been through. This may have led to the focus being off for the last three games, but it was a spontaneous outpouring that I wouldn’t trade for the world. The scenes at The Amex that day and in town that night were evidence that ‘#together’ was true in a way that I would never have dreamed was possible at a football club in the Sky era.
The fact that we have an owner and a board, a manager and a squad of players that have not only achieved our goal against the odds, but done it with such dignity, compassion and solidarity makes me the happiest I have ever been to call myself a Brighton fan. Newcastle players may have the medals, but ours have the guaranteed affection and respect of generations of Brighton fans all over the world for the rest of their lives.
He makes the point that Brighton’s promotion campaign has been 92 games. The players have been dealing with the pressure since going top of the league on the first Friday of last season. The way they responded to the heart-breaking end to 2015/16 has been an inspiration.
It should be noted that, although our form faltered after the goal of promotion was achieved, we were ahead of Newcastle because their form had faltered in just the same way over the three previous games. We and they both lost a game we would have expected to win (Bristol City/Ipswich), tripped up in difficult away game (Norwich/Wednesday) and drew a game we could have won (Villa/Leeds). At the time each of us was doing this, the other was taking maximum points from their three corresponding games. I think that the comparison between when the teams stumbled points to the different types of pressure they were experiencing.
Newcastle’s expensive team were under the pressure of expectation. The fear of potential failure when only success is acceptable must have been felt right up to the point where promotion was finally confirmed. At that point, they relaxed, played better and they won their last three.
Brighton, having been scrapping for every point for nearly two years, were used to the pressure and scrapped for the promotion points when they had to. The wins at QPR, Wolves and Wigan were hard won not necessarily through massively superior quality, but through an incredible will to succeed.
The relaxation that Brighton felt after confirming promotion had the opposite effect to that of Newcastle because they were in contrasting positions. In our case the pressure was driving rather than hampering our efforts. The players tried to get the hunger back for the Villa game and got so close, but just missed. That will hurt all of us for a while, but nobody who understands what has been achieved at this club would ever make Ashton’s stupid claim that we have been let down. We all know that the Championship is utterly unforgiving and that no team (unless selected by David Wagner apparently) is going to let you have anything for free.
The win against Wigan let out the pressure on something that has been bottled up throughout everything that the club, players, fans and community have been through. This may have led to the focus being off for the last three games, but it was a spontaneous outpouring that I wouldn’t trade for the world. The scenes at The Amex that day and in town that night were evidence that ‘#together’ was true in a way that I would never have dreamed was possible at a football club in the Sky era.
The fact that we have an owner and a board, a manager and a squad of players that have not only achieved our goal against the odds, but done it with such dignity, compassion and solidarity makes me the happiest I have ever been to call myself a Brighton fan. Newcastle players may have the medals, but ours have the guaranteed affection and respect of generations of Brighton fans all over the world for the rest of their lives.
