One of the all time lows. Dec 3rd 1996

[Freddie Goodwin.]

I wonder how many moaners out there were around at the Goldstone on this evening in December 1996 to see bottom of the table Albion take on the awful Darlington, a game we could surely win?

Except Albion were truly awful and managed to lose. There was a very early goal, that I missed, so I actually was annoyed that we 'drew' until I found out.

Positives? Well it was Bellotti's last appearence at a Goldstone match as he was chased from the stand soon after the game started. Steve foster has been quoted as saying it was the funniest thing he's seen in football!

It was also the end of playing legend and management disaster Jimmy Case. He was sacked after this 3-2 defeat. It was also the night when the after match demos turned ugly with an angry mob attempting to break into the west stand, a smaller version of an Iranian crowd wishing the British Embassy staff a happy Xmas.

Truly, after that game there looked absolutly no hope, which is why you won't find those who were there have much to moan about now.

Nationwide League Division Three 1996/1997
Historical league standings at 3rd December 1996

Home Away Overall
# Team Pl W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A Pts GS
1 Fulham 22 8 0 3 20 9 7 3 1 16 7 15 3 4 36 16 48 36
2 Cambridge United 22 8 1 2 19 11 5 2 4 14 16 13 3 6 33 27 42 33
3 Wigan Athletic 21 9 1 1 26 10 3 3 4 13 14 12 4 5 39 24 40 39
4 Carlisle United 22 7 2 2 18 9 4 5 2 14 11 11 7 4 32 20 40 32
5 Cardiff City 21 6 1 4 17 13 4 3 3 8 9 10 4 7 25 22 34 25
6 Swansea City 22 6 3 2 16 8 3 2 6 9 17 9 5 8 25 25 32 25
7 Barnet 22 5 5 1 16 7 3 3 5 7 10 8 8 6 23 17 32 23
8 Colchester United 22 5 5 1 20 10 2 5 4 12 16 7 10 5 32 26 31 32
9 Scunthorpe United 22 6 1 4 17 15 3 3 5 11 15 9 4 9 28 30 31 28
10 Northampton Town 22 5 3 3 18 11 3 3 5 13 15 8 6 8 31 26 30 31
11 Scarborough 21 4 5 2 15 13 3 4 3 15 14 7 9 5 30 27 30 30
12 Lincoln City 22 4 5 2 14 10 4 1 6 14 23 8 6 8 28 33 30 28
13 Chester City 21 5 3 3 15 11 3 3 4 8 12 8 6 7 23 23 30 23
14 Hull City 22 3 5 3 11 14 3 6 2 9 8 6 11 5 20 22 29 20
15 Torquay United 22 6 1 4 12 8 2 3 6 10 16 8 4 10 22 24 28 22
16 Rochdale 21 5 2 3 14 8 1 6 4 13 18 6 8 7 27 26 26 27
17 Exeter City 22 4 4 3 13 11 3 1 7 8 17 7 5 10 21 28 26 21
18 Doncaster Rovers 22 5 1 5 14 13 2 2 7 10 20 7 3 12 24 33 24 24
19 Mansfield Town 21 3 3 4 8 7 2 6 3 13 15 5 9 7 21 22 24 21
20 Leyton Orient 21 4 4 2 9 4 2 2 7 7 15 6 6 9 16 19 24 16
21 Hereford United 22 4 3 4 14 11 2 2 7 9 20 6 5 11 23 31 23 23
22 Darlington 22 4 3 4 16 14 2 1 8 14 25 6 4 12 30 39 22 30
23 Hartlepool United 21 2 4 4 13 15 4 0 7 10 13 6 4 11 23 28 22 23
24 Brighton & Hove Albion 22 2 4 5 14 19 1 0 10 4 23 3 4 15 18 42 13 1

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

Tuesday, 29 October 1996
It is five past three on Saturday afternoon, and the match has just kicked off. At first sight, it could be a scene from any game on any weekend, anywhere in Britain. But this is the Goldstone Ground, where things are rarely as they seem. When you go to watch Brighton and Hove Albion these days, you enter football's Twilight Zone.

There are the chants, their tunes familiar to any fan, but the words customised to reflect Brighton's desperate problems: "We've got no home, we've got no home, Brighton's got no home." Then there is the sight of hundreds of supporters turning their backs on the game to concentrate instead on the main grandstand.

And at the centre of their attention is the most extraordinary spectacle of all. Surrounded by empty seats, in a directors' box to which he and his wife have been escorted under police guard, is David Bellotti, Brighton's chief executive. He is middle-aged, balding, frail and bespectacled. It is hard to believe that he is also one of the most hated men in Sussex.

But hatred is the only word. It is in the faces and the pointing fingers as, individually and collectively, hundreds of Brighton's supporters hurl insults, threats and curses at Bellotti for as long as he remains in view. They hate him and, even more, they hate the man he represents. Most of them lay the bulk of the blame for the Seagulls' plight - bottom of the League and nowhere to play next season - squarely at the feet of Bill Archer, the club's chairman. Or rather, they would, if Archer's feet ever carried him within 100 miles of the ground. In his continuing absence, Bellotti takes the abuse for both of them.

What makes these scenes all the more remarkable is that these people are not skinheads or the casual crew, but Brighton fans. When the team spent four seasons in the old First Division in the early 1980s, at a time when awayday violence was all but taken for granted, the Brighton programme regularly printed letters from the managers of pubs and service stations, praising the supporters' impeccable behaviour. Barely a decade later, they are bitter, furious and close to despair as the team they love slips towards oblivion.

Before last Saturday's match with Fulham, about 800 fans marched through Brighton to demand the board's resignation. As a percentage of the current home gate, it was equivalent to 15,000 Manchester United fans taking to the streets. They knew that both Archer and Bellotti would have stepped aside months ago if either took the slightest notice of demonstrations, but the march served a purpose none the less. "The young people and the ones who want to start smashing things because they're so frustrated have to be kept occupied," Liz Costa, vice-chair of Brighton's Supporters Club, says. "The hard action is going to take place behind closed doors.''

Keeping the lid on a boiling pot of frustration is not quite what Costa signed up for in 1983 when she joined the Supporters' Club committee. Brighton had just been beaten in the FA Cup final, and though they were also relegated from the First Division, a swift return to the top flight was a credible ambition. Thirteen years later, she is involved in a rancorous war of attrition.

"Everything we do is legal and eye-catching," she says, "and we're getting quite expert at it. Every time we think we've run out of ideas, we think of something else. By the time we've finished, we'll have learned everything there is to know about this and, if there are any other clubs in a similar position, we'll be able to share our knowledge with them.''

The fans' grievances with their team's administrators are many and varied. Some are obvious, such as the sale of the Goldstone Ground when no firm plans were in place for an alternative stadium. Then there was the amendment to the Articles of Association, shortly after the sale of the ground for pounds 7m, which would have allowed directors to benefit in the event of the club being wound up. At the insistence of the Football Association, a clause preventing directors taking out more than they had put in - in Archer's case, pounds 56.25 - was re-instated. The board claimed its removal had been an oversight. Relations with the fans had been damaged beyond repair, and subsequent talk of a groundshare with Portsmouth, 50 miles distant, did nothing to improve them.

Careful digging by those who know where to look has unearthed further causes for concern. Paul Samrah, a chartered accountant, has spent many hours at Companies House sifting though Brighton's published accounts, and now specialises in immediate rebuttals to Bill Archer's rare public statements on the club's problems.

"Every comment he makes, we've got a factual retort for," Samrah says, "and this is all from published records. All he has personally invested is pounds 56.25, to buy a controlling share in the off-the-shelf holding company which he set up to administer the club."

A consortium led by Dick Knight, a local businessman, and which includes the construction firm, McAlpine, is attempting to take control of Brighton. Both the local Council and the FA appear to believe that it has the plans and backing to turn the club around. The consortium has satisfied four criteria which Archer himself laid down as the conditions under which he would step aside. Yet still he refuses to budge, or even to allow access to the accounts.

If Brighton's dreadful run of form continues, frustration and anger can only increase still further, not least as the realisation dawns that, without a ground to play at, it is far from certain that they will be allowed into the GM Vauxhall Conference should they finish in 92nd place. The Dr Martens League - or rather, oblivion - beckons.

Shortly before Brighton's chief executive was persuaded to leave the directors' box for his own safety after 65 minutes of Saturday's match, one fan offered a hint of what may lie ahead. "If you think this is bad, Bellotti," he yelled, "just you wait.''

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

The only time i can ever recall watching from the South stand-remember it well-

Like you say,very little to moan about.

 

[Reinelt12]

Look at that table - Wigan, Swansea, Fulham, Cardiff, Hull and of course Brighton all gone on to far far better things... To me that says never ever give up... and we didnt, and here we are!

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Look at that table - Wigan, Swansea, Fulham, Cardiff, Hull and of course Brighton all gone on to far far better things... To me that says never ever give up... and we didnt, and here we are!

And who would have thought that out of those teams, 2 clubs in that table would have been wound up and also that we wouldn't have been one of them (Scarborough and Chester)

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

Never forget these games,at the traffic lights by Hove Park tavern after that game,the Fulham march,the mansfield 'break in',storming the directors box against Carlisle.It was fun in a way!

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

Never forget these games,at the traffic lights by Hove Park tavern after that game,the Fulham march,the mansfield 'break in',storming the directors box against Carlisle.It was fun in a way!

Ah yes forgot about those!!! in the dark sat in the middle of the road at the lights,sheer madness but when i look back now,highly hilarious stuff!!!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I have missed these threads!!

2,709 was the official attendance at the time according to a programme from later on in the season.

League home form prior to and including...

WDWDLLLDDLL

...and after

WDWWWWWDWWWD

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Interesting to note that towards the end of the season, despite boycotts and what-have-you, we were 2nd in the attendance league with an average of 5,280 (up to the penultimate game at home).

Fulham top with 6,125. Noticeables... Wigan 3,688 Swansea 3,564 Hull 3,538 Cardiff 3,410

 

[Man of Harveys]

That game was absolutely the lowest point of an era of plenty of low points, at least before Steve Gritt, Stuart Storer, Robbie Reinelt performed their heroics. At that point, I left the north stand - from which I had THE perfect view of Belloti's petrified escape, which was something - after the game to walk out into the night and knew, positively knew, that that was the end of the club. No doubt whatsoever.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

It was a sort of watershed game, when it seemed every Albion fan, including many who had stopped going, decided that enough was enough and we would go to the wall if nothing was done.

It really brought all the types of fans together. High profile peole like, Harty, Attilla, Costa & Samrah were just part of a much bigger army of fans and it's good to see people like Insider, who was well in from the start of all the demos, now an integral part of the club and, as long as fans who've lived through the hard times, the club will be in good hands.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

It was a sort of watershed game, when it seemed every Albion fan, including many who had stopped going, decided that enough was enough and we would go to the wall if nothing was done.

It really brought all the types of fans together. High profile peole like, Harty, Attilla, Costa & Samrah were just part of a much bigger army of fans and it's good to see people like Insider, who was well in from the start of all the demos, now an integral part of the club and, as long as fans who've lived through the hard times, the club will be in good hands.

Dark days indeed-some good times as well in the face of adversity,friendships formed and the collective will to try,we would not be here today were it not for our support we had back then-every body played a part and some more than others.

I salute those who are no longer here to see where we are now-my mother included who past away recently as she went to the Goldstone on occasion too.

 

[robinsonsgrin]

that season, myself and then other half used to sit on the north terrace to watch the action.... the crowd was that sparse....quite often wished i hadnt bothered of course!

 

[Martinf]

Those were dark days indeed. A mate of mine, who I used to go to away games with, was one of the banned bunch - who used to have to watch home games from someone's back garden behind the East Terrace.

 

[Norman Potting]

All very well but does it justify the fact that the all services and wiring in the concourse ceilings are visible and not tidily covered with a suspended ceiling, or the favoured variety of pie is not always available?

 

[Wozza]

All very well but does it justify the fact that the all services and wiring in the concourse ceilings are visible and not tidily covered with a suspended ceiling, or the favoured variety of pie is not always available?

Funny.

 

[Working class pride]

The best of times and the worst of times. Showed the backbone and fight that Brighton fans have and times that we can all be proud of

 

[vulture]

I was there awfull awfull game lots if us protested afterwards and Case was getting loads of stick.Outside the west stand loads of banter with the darlo manager when they came out.The lowest point for me

 

[Durlston]

I remember "Jimmy Case is off his face!" being sung regularly. Who could blame him in those dark days if he was pissed?

That Darlo game afterwards felt like the end with things smashed up.

 

[Icy Gull]

I was there and left feeling that there was not even a glimmer of hope that we could survive as a club, relegation was a certainty