November Pain

When it comes to Tuesday night games, my 2009 record is terrible. Every statistic about Norwich vs. Brighton told me I shouldn’t make the 350 mile round trip. But stupidly I went ahead and travelled regardless.

It’s another Wednesday morning after another terrible Tuesday night watching the Albion. Brighton were back to their comical worst and were on the end of yet another hiding. This time it was Norwich, this time 4 more conceded and a return of no points.

So far this year I have been to Bristol twice, Walsall, Leicester, Stockport, Hereford, Luton, Huddersfield and Norwich on midweek away trips. I dread to think how many miles that has covered, but it must be well over 2,000.

The return for my support – 3 managers, 4 thrashings, a traffic jam that meant I only saw the last 11 minutes of the Leicester game, 1 postponement, 1 exit from the Johnstone Paint trophy and just 2 wins. 17 goals against and 7 goals to cheer in our favour.

This was also game number 666 of my Brighton watching career, spanning 22 years over 3 decades and 102 football grounds. Maybe another sign telling me not to go.

Why is it myself and hundreds of others keep doing it? There is no logic to it apart from unconditional love which seems to put the bad bits to the back of the memory in the vague hope that something brilliant may just happen. And when it does, you can say “I was there!”

In a twisted way, I think it may be more fun supporting a team that only win every four or five weeks. When the win comes, the feeling is magnified and the happiness inside is uncontrollable. If we won every game every week, it would get a bit boring. Celebrating goals wouldn’t have the same passion.

At Southampton the goals were being celebrated like we won the World Cup final and won millions on the lottery on the same day. Even our goal at Norwich was greeted with a mass outburst of euphoric happiness, even though deep down we knew we probably wouldn’t win the game.

“Big Four” Premiership fans just mildly applaud as they stick a 3rd goal past Wigan/Burnley/Portsmouth etc. It’s just not the same. And that’s if they’ve even gone to the game, and not sat on the couch watching it home.

I won’t go into too much detail about the game as it was just so infuriatingly bad it was funny. Our own fans were laughing at just how bad we were when Norwich banged in their 3rd, their disallowed goal and their 4th.

Like the famous John and Edward, Brighton were so comically bad (at the back), it makes compulsive viewing in a weirdly entertaining way. For all the wrong reasons we are entertaining to watch. Brighton fans usually get to see at least 3 or 4 goals per match!!

Norwich scored from a cross, a toe punt, an own goal and miss hit shot from distance. Sums us up. Norwich didn’t play that well (according to their fans) and yet they easily put 4 past us.

For the hapless, maybe unlucky Graeme Smith, his latest outing saw him concede the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th goal of his seven game long Brighton career. He is not a terrible keeper, but that is some going – which unfortunately may consign him to the “worst ever” in the record books.

We had our moments going forward, creating a couple of good chances in the first half, but in truth we look like a relegation threatened team low on confidence. The only fighting spirit we showed was in fact in a fight. A 20 man brawl sparked by a late challenge from Dean Cox.

After another terrible performance on the field, the 4-1 scoreline was not as hard to take as the £6.60 for a pint of Carling or Magners or the Delia Smith Cauliflower Cheese Pie. Despite all the rubbish served up on the pitch, hundreds of Brighton fans made the journey and made a right noise in the 24,000 strong crowd. At least something the club can be proud of.

Why is it, no matter how bad the team play, at the final whistle they get a standing ovation and a round of applause at away games, yet at home games, they get a chorus of boo’s?

I hope they (the players) realise what they put us through, as it was a total waste of money for a day drip. I know the Wigan players were humiliated (after losing 9-1) and offered a refund to fans, so it shows that some players do show their appreciation of the fans unconditional love.

It took nearly an hour to leave the car park after the game, by which time at least 74 Liverpool fans had rung in 606 to cry about winning away in the Champions League. The sympathy felt for the Liverpool fans from Brighton fans stuck in Norwich can’t have been that high.

The Liverpool fans had the luxury of still being entered into a European cup they so proudly won 4 years ago, and all they had to do was change over to BBC or ITV. In comparison, the travelling army of Brighton fans still had 175 miles to get home in the early hours of a cold November morning.

Well it was back down the A11 with Heart FM sympathetically blaring out the heartbreak classics. At 2am we arrived back home wondering what on earth made us ever think going was a great idea? As is mostly the case, it was a great day out spoiled by 90 minutes of the beautiful game!

Brett M