AZ Gull
@SeagullsAcademy Threads: @bhafcacademy
It was on November 7 1981 that my dad, me, our German school-exchange student Frank, my friend Richard and his dad Reg made the trip from Eastbourne to the Goldstone Ground to see Albion take on Birmingham in Division One. I was a football-mad 13-year-old, but nobody else in my family shared my passion. However, Frank was a Hamburg fan from Elmshorn and was keen to see an English football league match; my mum basically forced my dad to take us (as she realised how much it would mean to me). My dad couldn't have cared less (and never went again), hence roping in our friends who had at least been before.
I remember virtually nothing about that first match (the record books show that it finished 1-1, with Michael Robinson, RIP, scoring our goal).
We went into that match 7th in the top flight; forty years later, we sit…6th in the top flight. Plus ca change. It’s been dull, hasn’t it….
I couldn’t have known it at the time, but I had managed to begin a love affair with the club at almost the pinnacle of their footballing achievement – and within weeks began a long, slow, inexorable decline that would result in that blood-curdling, nerve-racking 90 minutes at Edgar Street in 1997. I have seen the side play at over eighty different grounds; mostly in the lower two divisions and always from the terraces (when it was an option). I’ve seen first team friendlies at places like Newcastle Town, Fisher Athletic and Tiverton Town. I’ve seen the youth team play at Goodison Park and Villa Park.
It seems bizarre that for almost half of those 40 years I have been supporting the club from afar. But I have been privileged to see the last couple of matches at the Amex; back worshipping at my personal cathedral, doing the thing that makes me happiest. Don’t ever take your football club for granted, and don’t ever take for granted your ability to see them in person.
I have a long day ahead of me today – literally, as I head back to the West Coast of the USA. At some point I will raise a glass and make a toast to Brighton and Hove Albion FC – to another 40 years of celebration, disappointment, ecstasy, pain and frustration – Up the Albion!
I remember virtually nothing about that first match (the record books show that it finished 1-1, with Michael Robinson, RIP, scoring our goal).
We went into that match 7th in the top flight; forty years later, we sit…6th in the top flight. Plus ca change. It’s been dull, hasn’t it….
I couldn’t have known it at the time, but I had managed to begin a love affair with the club at almost the pinnacle of their footballing achievement – and within weeks began a long, slow, inexorable decline that would result in that blood-curdling, nerve-racking 90 minutes at Edgar Street in 1997. I have seen the side play at over eighty different grounds; mostly in the lower two divisions and always from the terraces (when it was an option). I’ve seen first team friendlies at places like Newcastle Town, Fisher Athletic and Tiverton Town. I’ve seen the youth team play at Goodison Park and Villa Park.
It seems bizarre that for almost half of those 40 years I have been supporting the club from afar. But I have been privileged to see the last couple of matches at the Amex; back worshipping at my personal cathedral, doing the thing that makes me happiest. Don’t ever take your football club for granted, and don’t ever take for granted your ability to see them in person.
I have a long day ahead of me today – literally, as I head back to the West Coast of the USA. At some point I will raise a glass and make a toast to Brighton and Hove Albion FC – to another 40 years of celebration, disappointment, ecstasy, pain and frustration – Up the Albion!
