Its not easy keeping your emotions in check when your striker smashes one in the top corner like that but I managed to make it through the 90 minutes without being ejected, just!
Got to say though, our fans were fuckin fantastic tonight. Made a great noise all match, completely outsung the home fans who were extremely flat all game. I was very proud to be a Brighton fan and the Derby fans around me were really complimentary about our fans. 702 fans sounded like 10 times that.
The CMS chant was great. Fair play for keeping it going for most of the 90 minutes also, it sounded brilliant and must be a boost for him out there.
On the pitch we were so solid. Ankegren, Greer and Dunk were immense. Vincelot, Navarro, Harley and Hoskins were excellent. Bridcutt had a game of two halves, very poor first half but very good second half. Calderon had a bit of a dodgy game and Barnes was largely anonymous when he was on.
Of the subs, El-Abd was an improvement on Calderon, some crunching tackles and good going forward. A few rusty touches which you would expect. Noone was bright and exciting when he came on, again end product was lacking though. Paynter wasn't on long enough to make an impact.
But for me our best player was CMS. I really fuckin love that man, he was awesome tonight, I genuinely wouldnt swap him for any other Championship player. As usual he ran all night, and at top speed most of the time. He won so many balls and free kicks for us with some very clever touches and good close control and hold up play. It was an example of how to play up front on your own and he topped it off with a stunning goal and was very unlucky not to score a second with a very good header. The Derby fans were well impressed with him, they felt they would have won comfortably if he was playing for them rather than us tonight.
All in all though, a very satisfying night.
Got to say though, our fans were fuckin fantastic tonight. Made a great noise all match, completely outsung the home fans who were extremely flat all game. I was very proud to be a Brighton fan and the Derby fans around me were really complimentary about our fans. 702 fans sounded like 10 times that.
The CMS chant was great. Fair play for keeping it going for most of the 90 minutes also, it sounded brilliant and must be a boost for him out there.
On the pitch we were so solid. Ankegren, Greer and Dunk were immense. Vincelot, Navarro, Harley and Hoskins were excellent. Bridcutt had a game of two halves, very poor first half but very good second half. Calderon had a bit of a dodgy game and Barnes was largely anonymous when he was on.
Of the subs, El-Abd was an improvement on Calderon, some crunching tackles and good going forward. A few rusty touches which you would expect. Noone was bright and exciting when he came on, again end product was lacking though. Paynter wasn't on long enough to make an impact.
But for me our best player was CMS. I really fuckin love that man, he was awesome tonight, I genuinely wouldnt swap him for any other Championship player. As usual he ran all night, and at top speed most of the time. He won so many balls and free kicks for us with some very clever touches and good close control and hold up play. It was an example of how to play up front on your own and he topped it off with a stunning goal and was very unlucky not to score a second with a very good header. The Derby fans were well impressed with him, they felt they would have won comfortably if he was playing for them rather than us tonight.
All in all though, a very satisfying night.