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[Albion] Seems like yesterday







G

Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,341
Uffern
It's interesting that he says all the games blend into one - I have the same experience. There are certain thing I remember: Darlo taking us apart, the mind-numbing awfulness of the Valentine's Day Donny match but there are no real lasting memories. (I missed Emblen's hat trick as it was on Boxing Day and I had no way of getting to the ground).

How sad is that? I went to nearly every game and hardly anything to shout about - two lost years
 


B

Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,379
Gwylan said:
It's interesting that he says all the games blend into one - I have the same experience. There are certain thing I remember: Darlo taking us apart, the mind-numbing awfulness of the Valentine's Day Donny match but there are no real lasting memories. (I missed Emblen's hat trick as it was on Boxing Day and I had no way of getting to the ground).

How sad is that? I went to nearly every game and hardly anything to shout about - two lost years
Click to expand...
I went to loads of the Gillingham games as it worked quite well for us as a family. My wife comes from Orpington, so we'd drive up there in the morning, have lunch, then me, the kids and my father-in-law would go to the game leaving my wife and her mum to have a catch-up. Then we'd come back to Orpington afterwards, cold and depressed, to be cheered up by a roaring fire, a pot of tea and a plate of sandwiches. But yeah, I think I've blanked out most of the games, in fact I think I can tell you more about the sandwiches than the matches - they were usually the highlight of the day!

It was awful though. It wasn't just the shit football, it was more that every game felt like an away game, and after a defeat you'd think "Ah well, hopefully we'll win next week at home!" And of course when we first went there there was no guarantee that we would ever see a proper 'home' game again; we remember the fight for Falmer, but being allowed to play at Withdean was no rubber-stamp exercise. That first Withdean game (also against Mansfield) seemed like a huge leap forward, as indeed it was. Grim days.


(Just got to add that I can be grateful for where we are and how far we've come and still be pissed off because we couldn't score in the Premier League against Newcastle. The two aren't exclusive.)
 


Charlies Shinpad

Charlies Shinpad

New member
Jul 5, 2003
4,415
Oakford in Devon
Emblems treble was about the only highlight really as well as Super Rodney Thomas, when he could be bothered.
Meeting Robbie Renault in the que for a burger at halftime and when I asked him why he wasn't playing he just said Nobby Horton didn't fancy him as a player.
Lowest point for me personally was getting tanked by Barnet at home on Bonfire night and a crowd of just over 1,000 in attendance.
That's my reality check to where we are now.

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Icy Gull

Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Charlies Shinpad said:
Emblems treble was about the only highlight really as well as Super Rodney Thomas, when he could be bothered.
Meeting Robbie Renault in the que for a burger at halftime and when I asked him why he wasn't playing he just said Nobby Horton didn't fancy him as a player.
Lowest point for me personally was getting tanked by Barnet at home on Bonfire night and a crowd of just over 1,000 in attendance.
That's my reality check to where we are now.

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Click to expand...

I think it may have been after that game that on the way back from Gillingham listening to the radio, as it was a European football evening, and the host, after giving out the score, came out with “I have a question for the 1000 Brighton fans who went to Gillingham, Why?” That made me more angry than the latest defeat I had just witnessed
 
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Charlies Shinpad

Charlies Shinpad

New member
Jul 5, 2003
4,415
Oakford in Devon
Icy Gull said:
I think it may have been after that game that on the way back from Gillingham listening to the radio as it was a European football evening and the host, after giving out the score, came out with “I have a question for the 1000 Brighton fans who went to Gillingham, Why?” That made me more angry the latest defeat I had just witnessed
Click to expand...
I'm sure we lost 4-0
No doubt someone on here can confirm the score and attendance?

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M

METALMICKY

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2004
6,079
Gwylan said:
It's interesting that he says all the games blend into one - I have the same experience. There are certain thing I remember: Darlo taking us apart, the mind-numbing awfulness of the Valentine's Day Donny match but there are no real lasting memories. (I missed Emblen's hat trick as it was on Boxing Day and I had no way of getting to the ground).

How sad is that? I went to nearly every game and hardly anything to shout about - two lost years
Click to expand...

Yes curious fact. Having read that story I thought he's spot on about things merging. I travelled from Eastbourne for the two seasons we were there. My recollections are a bit random and and disjointed too:

The Cricketers pub being half decent but located in a rough looking estate

Gary Hart just running his socks off every week.

Jeff Minton looking a class above and even now you wonder why he didn't have a better career

Attila and Paul Samrah on the tannoy

If Jamie Moralee wasn't playing you'd still see him making a grand entrance into the ground like some super star with a silly outfit on and a leggy blonde Dolly bird

If St John's ambulance were needed on the pitch they were led by a comical over weight spectacled chap with a Michael Johnson tippy toe running style. Poor fella was only doing his job but I recall him getting some jokey stick

I travelled with the A27 supporters club and sometimes the games were so dire that the highlight was the coach results prediction competition.
 


Nobby Cybergoat

Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
6,991
God awful. I have very few memories of those days and don't remember the first game at all

I just remember getting to Conway Street for the bus every Saturday morning, which left at something like 10 or 10:30am and remember thinking, bloody hell, this early for a home game.

Also on that bus, I remembering it trying to get up Handcross Hill every week at such a low speed I genuinely thought it wasn't going to make it

The only football thing I really remember was watching Jason Roberts play for someone (maybe Swansea) and thinking he was the best player i'd seen live for years
 




thedonkeycentrehalf

thedonkeycentrehalf

Retired
Jul 7, 2003
8,627
METALMICKY said:
If St John's ambulance were needed on the pitch they were led by a comical over weight spectacled chap with a Michael Johnson tippy toe running style. Poor fella was only doing his job but I recall him getting some jokey stick.
Click to expand...

That guy was a rare highlight of those years. I went more in the second year than the first. Lots of lowlights (including that Donny Valentines match which is still the worst game of professional football I have ever seen). We lost 4-0 to Exeter (I think) and left before the end as couldn't face any more. Were parked about two minutes from the ground (one highlight) and we were back in the pub in Worthing by 6:15pm.

The musical choices by Attila were always interesting and I remember after another demoralising defeat him playing "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next" as we trudged out of the ground.
 


Icy Gull

Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
thedonkeycentrehalf said:
That guy was a rare highlight of those years. I went more in the second year than the first. Lots of lowlights (including that Donny Valentines match which is still the worst game of professional football I have ever seen). We lost 4-0 to Exeter (I think) and left before the end as couldn't face any more. Were parked about two minutes from the ground (one highlight) and we were back in the pub in Worthing by 6:15pm.

The musical choices by Attila were always interesting and I remember after another demoralising defeat him playing "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next" as we trudged out of the ground.
Click to expand...

Tubthumping was a good choice after most games too, still takes me back to Gillingham when I hear it
 


C

cheshunt seagull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
2,498
I can’t believe it’s been that long but as others have said the memories do all blur into one. The drive from Hertfordshire through Strood and Rochester; a pint in the Livingstone; the metal urinals in the Rainham End designed for maximum splashback from the person next to you; any vague sense of expectation evaporating within minutes of kick-off; seeing the Brighton and Hove buses pull up outside about 5 mins before the end which seemed to mark the end of yet another miserable afternoon. The only game I can really remember with any clarity is the 0-0 against Darlington in which their keeper was sent off early on. Without a keeper on the bench they put striker Carl Shutt in goal after which we didn’t manage a shot on target in the whole game. I still see that as the lowest point I experienced as an Albion fan.
 








B

Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,379
thedonkeycentrehalf said:
That guy was a rare highlight of those years. I went more in the second year than the first. Lots of lowlights (including that Donny Valentines match which is still the worst game of professional football I have ever seen). We lost 4-0 to Exeter (I think) and left before the end as couldn't face any more. Were parked about two minutes from the ground (one highlight) and we were back in the pub in Worthing by 6:15pm.

The musical choices by Attila were always interesting and I remember after another demoralising defeat him playing "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next" as we trudged out of the ground.
Click to expand...

Yes, I do actually remember that one. My father-in-law (mentioned in my post), is actually an Exeter fan, and to try and soften the blow at the end he said: "I thought we were a bit lucky!" :lolol:
 




Wozza

Wozza

Shite Supporter
Jul 6, 2003
23,629
Online
cheshunt seagull said:
The only game I can really remember with any clarity is the 0-0 against Darlington in which their keeper was sent off early on. Without a keeper on the bench they put striker Carl Shutt in goal after which we didn’t manage a shot on target in the whole game. I still see that as the lowest point I experienced as an Albion fan.
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Yep. All of this.
 


Eeyore

Eeyore

Colonel Hee-Haw of Queen's Park
NSC Patron
Apr 5, 2014
23,587
Charlies Shinpad said:
I'm sure we lost 4-0
No doubt someone on here can confirm the score and attendance?

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Click to expand...

Happy to oblige. Or maybe not. Depressing stat.

0-3 Crowd 1,025
 




Pinkie Brown

Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,544
Neues Zeitalter DDR
Didn't attend many in the first season but more in the second. The first game I attended was against Rochdale around Sept/Oct-ish which as I remember was our first win at Priestfield.

Highlights? That's a challenge. The 2nd Fans United day is memorable even if the football was was dismal dross. Also remember that day being ridiculously warm for February.

The 4-1 (I think?) demolition of Brentford on Boxing Day in the second season was decent. In the that season the atmosphere and attendances picked up as the Withdean light was at the end of the tunnel. Irrespective, I resented every minute spent there.

Lowlights? Way too many. Remember traipsing to a few midweek games the first season and wishing I hadn't. Darlington being one. Thankfully the era of Damien Hilton, Michael Mahoney-Johnson and Jamie Moralee are distant bad memories.
 




T

The red pepper kid

Active member
Dec 30, 2014
664
Charlies Shinpad said:
25 years on from the most depressing day in our history

https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/news/2745238

Bellotti sat just across from about ten of us with his wife.
He lasted until halftime with the abuse we have him.
Sammy McIlroy said he had never seen anything like it in his time in football as we were directly above the tunnel.

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Never understood why a hated man took his wife, she was singled out for a few nasty songs --- Bellotti wot a complete thieving bellend
 


LANGDON SEAGULL

LANGDON SEAGULL

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2004
3,424
Langdon Hills
I remember Rod Thomas saving the ball on the goal line - think it was against Cardiff. Got a red card for his troubles and they scored from the penalty


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