A pavilion, a pier but no football ground

Darren Currie

But this is not a criticism of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, they were left without a ground by a North West businessman by the name of Bill Archer who flogged it to be used for a retail park.

They had a couple of years playing at Gillingham, imagine two visits a year to that dreadful place, and then were at least allowed back in their home town but at the far from adequate Withdean Stadium.

They are fighting for a new stadium to be built at Falmer, this web site supports them in that fight, and unless that happens they are a club with hardly a rosy future brought about by the hardly suitable facilities of the Withdean.

They have though, twice in two years, been promoted into this division and whereas last time they were doomed almost from the off (after beating us on the opening day of the season) they are this time making a better fist of it and are currently 18th in the table with just a couple of points less than the Clarets.

The situation all means that the manager, now Mark McGhee, has very little to spend in the transfer market and having somewhat fortunately won the play offs last season his squad strengthening has been up to now just a handful of free transfers including youngsters and a sacked manager.

His first summer signing was Swiss striker Maheta Molango who was signed from Atletico Madrid. He made his debut on the opening day of the season and scored in a 3-2 defeat at Reading. That’s been his only goal so far and he hasn’t featured since the end of August.

Darren Currie arrived from Wycombe Wanderers, the 30-year-old midfielder is fast approaching 500 league games but until arriving at the Withdean they have all been in the lower divisions.

Franchise midfielder Albert Jarrett also came in before the start of the season but he has mainly been used as a substitute and he was joined by Alexis Nicolas who came in on loan from Chelsea.

The midfielder made his move more permanent last month having impressed during his loan period and there has been one signing since. The sacking of Steve Claridge at Weymouth was met with delight by a lot of fans but now he is set to make his home debut for the Seagulls against us having signed a short term deal.

He was in the side that surprisingly won at West Ham last week when defender Guy Butters scored the only goal of the game.

The 1-0 scoreline shouldn’t have been a surprise – they have won six matches this season and all have been won with that scoreline. The first of them in August proved to be the end of the road for Preston boss Craig Brown who lost his job despite there being approximately 30 excuses and another 30 reasons why the result was unjust.

Click HERE to see all Brighton’s results this season.

Mark McGhee will have to make at least two changes from the side that won at West Ham. Adam Virgo was sent off for violent conduct and will start his three match ban tomorrow whilst captain Danny Cullip is also ruled out after collecting his fifth booking of the season in the same match.

As those two go out Gary Hart, he who got Arthur sent off two years ago, returns from suspension and Nathan Jones is back after recovering from injury although it is likely both will have to start on the bench.

Brighton are expected to line up: Michael Kuipers, Paul Reid, Adam Hinshelwood, Guy Butters, Daniel Harding, Richard Carpenter, Alexis Nicolas, Charlie Oatway, Darren Currie, Leon Knight, Steve Claridge. Subs from: Ben Roberts, Chris May, Adam El-Abd, Kerry Mayo, Paul Watson, Nathan Jones, Dean Hammond, Maheta Molango, Jake Robinson, Gary Hart.

Burnley are down to the bare bones again according to manager Steve Cotterill with a mystery player set to be ruled out following a training injury. We cannot even begin to speculate as to who it could be but we do know that we will go into the game without the services of Danny Coyne, Frank Sinclair and Richard Chaplow whilst there seems to be little chance of either Micah Hyde or Jean-Louis Valois making it.

If no one else does miss out then I expect the Burnley team to be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, Lee Roche, Tony Grant, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Paul Scott, Amadou Sanokho, Richard Duffy, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill, Mark Yates.

Our last, and only previous, visit to the Withdean looked all set to be a memorable day out when we led 2-0 with the clock almost on the 90 minutes. We deserved to be in front and had been much the better side throughout the game.

Glen Little and Ian Moore had scored the goals, Moore’s just one minute after coming on as a substitute, but then in what was officially the last minute of the game a mistake by Dean West allowed Steve Sidwell, on loan from Arsenal, to pull one back.

Incredibly a minute later it was 2-2 as Sidwell scored again and a long journey home was suddenly looking a lot longer.

The teams that day were,

Brighton: Michel Kuipers, Paul Watson, Kerry Mayo, Danny Cullip, Robbie Pethick, Steve Sidwell, Charlie Oatway (Gary Hart 70), Richard Carpenter, Nathan Jones (Paul Brooker 76), Bobby Zamora, Graham Barrett. Subs not used: Will Packham, Paul Kitson, Adam Hinshelwood.

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Mark McGregor, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Alan Moore (Ian Moore 70), Robbie Blake (Dimitri Papadopoulos 60), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Andrew Waine, Matt O’Neill.