Another lot fighting for their lives

Before that run they were ten points clear and looking comfortable but now they find themselves in the bottom three and behind Watford on goal difference although only a couple of points behind Coventry who are five places higher.

We sampled the delights of the overpriced Withdean Stadium, the worst ground in the league, back in November and won it 1-0 with a goal from Robbie Blake, his last away goal for the Clarets.

Mark McGhee has made some changes to his squad since then but there’s not much scope for a club whose average league attendance this season is less than 6,400, restricted by the stadium and not lack of potential support.

Millwall forward Mark McCammon signed on loan initially but the deal has since been made permanent and Rami Shaaban, Arsenal’s Swedish goalkeeper arrived in mid-February.

McGhee also has two players there on loan just now and they are Millwall defender Joe Dolan and Alan Blayney, yet another goalkeeper, from Southampton.

That last victory was against Millwall which they won in stoppage time with a goal from Gary Hart, but they’ve conceded goals in every game since including seventeen in those six defeats.

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

Manager Mark McGhee has pointed to the lack of quality in the side as a reason for the poor results and said today, “I don’t think I can ask the players to give any more in terms of effort or commitment. I can’t go into the dressing room on Saturday and say, ‘If you work harder you will beat Burnley’.

“They cannot work harder than they are working so it has to be something else. It’s got to be the quality of the performance, it’s got to be the mentality of us during the performance. We’ve got to find something different.”

McGhee will have to try something different. He is without both Gary Hart and Leon Knight who are completing two match suspensions whilst goalkeeper Michel Kuipers, Paul Watson and Adam Hinshelwood are all ruled out with injury. He does have Kerry Mayo available again after injury after he came through a midweek reserve game without any problems. He’s expected to go on the bench in the following Brighton side:

Alan Blayney, Adam El-Abd, Joe Dolan, Guy Butters, Paul Reid, Charlie Oatway, Richard Carpenter, Dean Hammond, Daniel Harding, Adam Virgo, Mark McCammon. Subs from: Rami Shaaban, Kerry Mayo, Jake Robinson, Nathan Jones, Chris McPhee, Alexis Nicolas.

Click HERE to see the full Brighton squad.

One place in our side will definitely be taken by Danny Coyne who will be making his last Turf Moor appearance of the season as Steve Cotterill continues to alternate his keepers.

And there’s some good news for Steve who can welcome back to fitness both Lee Roche and Tony Grant who were both laid low last weekend. Grant made the bench with Roche worse than him but neither of them had mumps as was first feared.

The manager is demanding more effort after last week and it would be no surprise to see a return for Grant who would have started last week in place of Jean-Louis Valois had he not been taken ill.

Frank Sinclair is still struggling and unlikely to play so the likely Burnley line up is:

Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, John Oster, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Jean-Louis Valois, Dean Bowditch, Joel Pilkington.

When you start the season at home you want to get off to a good start and a home match against one of the relegation favourites gives you a really good chance to get that good start.

That’s how it was at the beginning of the 2002/03 season when newly promoted Brighton were our visitors.

The most incredible memory of the day though is of Chairman Barry Kilby being booed by his own supporters at half time because of the lack of new signings at the club following the collapse of ITV Digital.

The first half was poor from the Clarets and we trailed 1-0 at the interval through a Steve Melton goal but the early stages of the second half suggested we might get back into the game. That was until Arthur Gnohere decided to head but Gary Hart in front of the Longside and got himself sent off by Stoke referee Tony Bates.

Gnohere tried to claim he hadn’t done it afterwards but it was clear to all on that side of the ground that he received just what he deserved.

Within a quarter of an hour of that we were three down and the game was all over although Lee Briscoe pulled one back in stoppage time for what it was worth.

Stan Ternent wasn’t happy and ignoring Arthur he turned his attentions to Robbie Blake. “He was hopeless,” said Ternent. “And I’ve told him so. He looked like he had divers boots on.”

He added, “It was a ridiculously bad day at the office, it is not the fact of losing but the way we lost. We just weren’t competitive but you can bet your bottom dollar that win, lose or draw we will be better next time.”

We did of course go on to lose the next three games with two of the performances even worse.

The teams were,

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Steve Davis, Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch (Ian Cox 45), Glen Little, Tony Grant, Lee Briscoe, Ian Moore (Dimitri Papadopoulos 60), Gareth Taylor, Robbie Blake (Paul Weller 52). Subs not used: Paul Cook, Andy Payton.

Brighton: Michel Kuipers, Paul Watson, Kerry Mayo, Adam Hinshelwood, Robbie Pethick, Charlie Oatway, Richard Carpenter, Steve Melton (Paul Rogers 35), Gary Hart (Shaun Wilkinson 69), Paul Brooker, Bobby Zamora (Daniel Marney 86). Subs not used: Andy Petterson, Adam Virgo.