Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton & Hove Albion History

2006-07 Season

18th in League One
League Cup: 2nd round; Southend United a. 2-3
FA Cup: 3rd round; West Ham United a. 0-3
JP Trophy: Southern Semi Final; Bristol City a. 0-2

Highlight:
4-1 win at Leyton Orient, 13/2/07

Low Spot:
1-0 defeat at Brentford, 10/2/07

Good:
Dean Hammond
Eight goals from midfield was a good, and vital, contribution. Hard working and competitive Hammond could be rightly pleased with his efforts over the season.
Dean Cox
Another consistent performer in midfield Cox supplied six goals, lots of enthusiasm and a fair amount of ability.
With scope for improvement this youngster provides the long suffering Brighton fans with some reason to be cheerful about the future.

In Brief:
Having taken 7 points from the first 3 games Brighton then lost the next 3 games to give a clearer indication of what the season had in store. Then four straight defeats spanning late September, early October suggested a genuine relegation struggle might be on the cards.
The Seagulls then rallied to win 10 out of 13 games although 5 of these were cup ties but 10th position by early December was encouraging. Only 1 win in 12 games, however, meant that by mid February the club was only two points above the relegation zone.
Three wins gave the club breathing space and they went through March undefeated although only one of the games was won. This proved vital as April brought another slump with five defeats being suffered.
Brighton appears to be a club unable to break out of its' slumbers and will probably remain this way until it can finally secure itself a new home. The sooner the better as the south coast club should surely be punching its' weight higher up the league structure than this.

Brighton & Hove Albion FC History

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club was formed in 1901 after two previous teams in the town had folded. The club gained entry into the Football League in 1920 as original members of Division Three. Despite several decent FA Cup runs Brighton could not manage to win promotion from Division Three South until the very last year of that division's existence in 1958. They had previously finished as runners up in both 1954 and 1956.

The club spent four seasons in Division Two before suffering a severe slump which saw them descend into Division Four in 1963.

In 1965 the Seagulls won the fourth division championship and returned to Division Two in 1972. The following year, however, they slipped straight back down into the third division.

Interest around this time was boosted hugely by the subsequent managerial appointments of Brian Clough, Peter Taylor and Alan Mullery.

Brighton won promotion into Division Two in 1977 and after missing out on promotion to Tottenham Hotspur on goal difference the following year they made it into Division One for the one and only time in 1979.

A measure of the clubs buoyancy at this time is provided by the average attendance figure of 25,265 for the 1977-78 season when the Seagulls just missed out on promotion. A far cry from the Withdean.

The club relied heavily on the goals of Peter Ward and had the outstanding defensive qualitites of Mark Lawrenson in their ranks.

First division life was difficult for Brighton and they were relegated in 1983. Significant consolation came the clubs way as they won through to the FA Cup final. The Seagulls had a tricky path to negotiate in reaching Wembley as well. They won a replay against Newcastle United at St James Park in round three before knocking out Manchester City 4-0, Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday.

They were famously within a whisker of beating Manchester United in the final as well. Level at 2-2 with only seconds of extra time remaining Gordon Smith saw his shot parried at point blank range and United lived to fight another day. The replay was lost 4-0.

After three seasons in mid table Brighton finished bottom of the second division in 1987 only to climb back instantly after finishing as runners up in Division Three in 1988.

In 1991 Brighton only missed out on a return to the top flight after losing in a play off final 3-1 to Notts County but collapsed the following season and were relegated into the third tier of English football. Then in 1996 the club slumped into the basement.

The club was in complete turmoil around this time, struggling financially and having to play home matches at Gillingham's ground after selling the Goldstone Ground without having a site for a new stadium. There were probably one or two ex-pats living in Kent who thought this was great but the 300 mile round trip to every home game was a bit of a bugger for most Seagulls fans.

In 1997, after having two points deducted, Brighton only avoided relegation to the Conference by virtue of having scored more goals than Hereford United, who they managed to draw with on the final day of the season. If goal difference had been used to separate teams that season the Seagulls would have perished.

Having stabilised Brighton managed to win successive divisional championships to return to the second tier in 2002. The club then yo-yoed for a couple of seasons, relegated in 2003 then promoted in 2004 after a play off final victory over Bristol City.

The Seagulls hardly look equipped to be sure of a future at Championship level just yet, however.

Brighton's best effort in the League Cup came in 1979 when they reached the 5th round. The club beat Millwall, Burnley and Peterborough United before losing to Nottingham Forest 3-1.

Life continues to be difficult for Brighton both on and off the field with permission for a new stadium in the Brighton area still being sought. Without it Albion are stuck playing at the dreadful Withdean Stadium, a second rate athletics venue, with little chance of progressing as a club.

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