Why does the rest of football find the Brighton/Palace rivalry so bizarre?

[Buzzer]

I've heard it said countless times and again last night by a group of Argyle fans who seem surprised esp. by the intensity of it.

Palace are our nearest rivals and we are the nearest decent opposition to Palace and being Pikeys they're naturally attracted to shiny things and they covet our 1910 Charity Shield. Stands to reason they are going to resent us.

Seriously, is it really that odd a rivalry? I don't think so.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Nope. Perfectly normal in my eyes.

Cosmopolitan, regency Brighton against the concrete jungle that is Croyden.

 

[Hove Seagull]

I can't even pass Shitwankhurst park on the train without sticking my fingers up! Now, people do find that odd, especially the opera-goers.

 

[The Large One]

Who should we have as rivals then?

Portsmouth - they're in a sailor's clinch with the Scummers.
Southampton - they're in a sailor's clinch with the Skates.

Beyond those two, stands to reason. Dunnit.

 

[Seagull kimchi]

The last time I was at Selhurst was the K. Morton debacle. I was a horribly hungover 15 year old and I chundered my guts out just before kick off. The away terrace was packed that day so inevitably I splattered a few innocent folk's shoes and turn-ups with hell vomit.

Now at any other ground I'd have been a nuisance to those around me, but at Selhurst the good fans of BHAFC reveled in my apparent revulsion to the 'facilities' and was regarded with empathy.

 

[16bha]

Who should we have as rivals then?

Portsmouth - they're in a sailor's clinch with the Scummers.
Southampton - they're in a sailor's clinch with the Skates.

Beyond those two, stands to reason. Dunnit.

I am starting to build up a dislike of Crawley for no apparent reason, which seems logical, but they are in a different league.

 

[The Large One]

I am starting to build up a dislike of Crawley for no apparent reason, which seems logical, but they are in a different league.

I think a rivalry has to be kicked-off by a defining moment. We haven't had that with them yet.

I hate Manchester United, but I don't consider them rivals.

 

[catfish]

The cup replay in '76 really brought it to a head & it just felt natural to hate from that moment onwards.

 

[Storer 68]

Here is a defining moment..................

Is this not reason enough....................

 

[Working class pride]

Cant dislike Crawley as I have seen the Crawley Seagulls flag at lots of far flung grounds at away games over the years. Palace? As Mullery said, not worth a fiver. They have never won a major trophy (unlike our Charity Shield), and their only sniff of a trophy was following us to Wembley in the FA Cup final a few years later. Palace are tin pot Nigels, always have been and always will be.

 

[See-Goals]

Too much time spent in different divisions over recent years possibly?

Geographically other teams expect the usual south coast suspects to be more of a rivalry?

The fact that there are many albion fans (me included) that were too young or born after the rivalry at its peak only see it as a historical thing and recent head to head games have been far and few between and largely uneventful.

 

[Buzzer]

Cor! Tell you what, then See-Goals - you're in for a treat on the 27th. I think this is the first time in 20 years we've been roughly equal. The atmosphere at Falmer will be fantastic.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

It is a totally unnatural rivalry...a South London club v a South Coast club.
It doesn't sit comfortably and we all know that it was artificially created in the mid seventies.
Up to that point Palace always clashed with Millwall. They were natural rivals..geographically close and generally, hated each other.
Brighton sat alone, 50 miles from the nearest league opposition. We couldn't hijack the Pompey/ Saints thing...too well established. We were a stand alone club, quietly going about our business, with a dolphin on our badge.
And thats how it probably would have stayed had the upwardly mobile careers of messrs Venables and Mullery not brought them into sharp conflict with each other.
Former teammates they desperately wanted to get one over each other and never hesitated in stirring things up and fanning the flames. The two sets of fans got sucked into it and hey presto, before you knew it, we hated each other.
We got a new rival, a new nickname and for the angry and aggressive young men of the 70's, a focus for their hate and violence.
Young Palace fans were only too happy to jump on the bandwagon and abandon Millwall. After all, it was more fun to create mayhem on the coast, than in the gloom of Bermondsey, Peckham and New Cross. They fancied themselves more against Brighton. We were seen as a slightly ' softer touch ' than that lot from the Den.
And it just grew to where it is today. Unless you are over 50, you've known nothing else. Successive generations of Millwall fans have switched their attentions to West Ham and left us to it.
So there it is....without messrs Venables and Mullery there would be no rivalry.

 

[Working class pride]

Millwall have always had west ham as their proper rivals, simply because Millwall is on the Isle of dogs. Palace were not really thought of as a london club for years also. Geography is irrelevant, just ask Real Madrid and Barca. The trouble up at Selhurst and at the Goldstone cemented the rivalry tho'.

 

[See-Goals]

I've been to one which was the 0-0 draw back in 2003 when Graham Barrett ACTUALLY connected with the ball in a goal bound trajectory which skimmed the bar. The atmosphere that night was brilliant.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound dismissive of the rivalry, its just for me personally we've never played each other regularly enough over recent years therefore the rivalry to anyone under the age of 30 will be a hand me down rather than first hand experience.

 

[LS6]

According to google maps..

Cardiff to Swansea - 40.6 miles
Manchester United to Leeds - 48.7 miles

Brighton to Palace - 43.2 miles

 

[See-Goals]

Double post - dodgy phone

 

[Prof P]

I might well get a kicking for this...but can someone explain how Brighton took part in a Charity Shield if they had not won the top tier league or FA cup the season before?

Apologies to all for being a bad fan.

 

[Buzzer]

Something about champions of the south playing the champions of the north or something like that.

 

[Cheshire]

The first meeting I can remember, when I think Clough was our Manager, Palace came to the Goldstone and they were just one of them annoying big clubs that basically had an away day with thousands of supporters in most sides of the ground. At that time as Mike Bamber would say we had more football attenders than actual supporters. With the success that was to come during the Bamber years that support base grew and with that the rivalry that really starting with that FA replay at Stamford Bridge. Not many clubs can claim that their badge and nickname all started as a mickey take of their rivals.

Maybe the strangest thing is not so much that we had a rivalry with them, but how it has survived a few decades when we have hardly played each other with whole generations hardly knowing a match between us. Agent Coppell gave them the boasting rights goals wise, but victory the last time we played them at Selhurst was sweet, and who knows what agent Murray will do?