Another week, another landmark… Joao Pedro is the first Seagull to don the iconic Brazilian shirt. Aside from that, it appears that good news is scarce.
With at least 11 first-team squad players unavailable for Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest, Albion’s dressing room resembles a scene from Holby City rather than Dream Team.
It obviously raises the perennial and nearly obligatory question, ”
Unfortunately, no one could have predicted this number of injuries just a third of the way through the season, and for those astute Alecs who immediately point fingers at both the club’s fitness regime and the medical team, these are simply a terrible set of circumstances.
But we’re Brighton, the ‘Lazarus’ club, the team that effectively came back from the dead, so we’ll take whatever comes our way.
After seeing some of the dross in a blue and white shirt over the years, a team lining up at the City Ground at 3pm on Saturday with Verbruggen, Veltman, Webster, Gross, Adingra, Gilmour, Lallana, Fati, and the aforementioned Pedro is a veritable feast.
Because of the Albion’s unpredictability, they could easily go to Forest on Saturday and get a result. After a poor start to their first ever top flight campaign, the Albion looked like relegation certainties as early as November 1979, 44 years ago.
They came to face Brian Clough‘s Forest, the reigning European champions at the time, who had a 51-game league unbeaten streak at home dating back nearly three years. Throw in the Match of the Day camaras, and the stage was set for one of Albion’s most memorable road victories.
The game was won by the recently departed and much-missed Gerry Ryan, Cloughie was dismissive in his post-match assessment, and journalistic legend John Vinicombe later wrote that this was the game that effectively turned the Albion’s season around.
They then defeated Forest again at Goldstone, completing an unrivaled ‘double’ against the European champions. To younger readers, this is equivalent to beating Manchester City at the Etihad and the Amex.
The Albion now dine at football’s top table, with European football on the menu, but hampered by injuries, it’s fair to say the league form has stuttered at times, with draws at home to both Fulham and Sheff Utd being examples.
Maybe, with all the injury setbacks and a trip to Athens next week, lightning will strike twice in the same place, with Albion getting a result in the East Midlands to re-ignite their EPL campaign?
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