7oaksgull
Well-known member
Revolution on the South Coast: Why being a Brighton fan is great right now
September 19, 2012 in Championship
Written by: Matt Harrison on September 19, 2012.
I hate the phrase “young, talented manager”. It’s banded about in the press far too much, and every pundit will acclaim any manager under the age of 45 to be “destined for big things” should they string together a couple of wins. It’s a fairly crazy scenario, but if there was one manager out there right now who deserves the accolade of “young, talented manager”, it’s Gus Poyet.
Being a Brighton fan must simply be incredible right now. After yo-yoing between League 1 and the Championship throughout the last decade, they have finally gained their footing in the 2nd tier and look to be on an ever upward trajectory. The fact that they have finally managed to move away from the Withdean and into their own home, the Amex Stadium, is definitely helping. The success of last season lead to the addition of 5,000 more seats at the stadium, almost all of which were filled on Friday night for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday. There are already plans to take capacity up to 30,000.
It is very hard to begrudge Brighton any of their success. I went to see my team play away at the Withdean back in 2002 and the one thing I took away from that visit was that the club really seemed to give a crap about their fans. Every match ticket (including away fans) had free ‘park and ride’ vouchers attached to it, as there was no parking near the stadium. The park and ride buses were frequent, clean, friendly and the fans chatted happily with opposition fans. In the Amex, this attitude appears to have been kept. The away stand concourse is lit with the away team’s colours, the North Stand stays open for fans (home or away) after the game to wait for trains, and they even display the train times on the big screens. Basically, even if your team loses, it seems like a nice place to see them lose.
Aside from an excellent stadium, Brighton are actually playing pretty well. Poyet doesn’t have many star names, but has them playing fast attacking football home and away; so far, it’s reaped rewards. They’ve hit the back of the net 11 times in the last three games. Record signing Craig Mackail-Smith is finally finding his goal-scoring boots after a hard time last season – if you haven’t yet seen his over head kick against Burnley, then do it now! The experience and guile of Vicente brings something different to the league, plus Wayne Bridge has started off his loan spell well, scoring twice. Now he enjoys two Saturdays every week (pun very much intended). Poyet has also turned the likes of Will Buckley, Dean Hammond and Gordon Greer into solid Championship performers.
I’m very surprised that Brighton were able to hold onto Poyet this summer. He must surely have been a contender for numerous jobs (whether he wanted to be or not) – Norwich, Birmingham, Swansea all would have probably taken a look at the big Uruguayan. Brighton will do extremely well to hold on to him when the inevitable managerial merry-go-round begins in the winter. If Poyet stays, I can see him doing wonderful things with Brighton; the club is going in the right direction on and off the pitch, the team looks nailed on for at least a play-off spot and the manager looks like Premier League quality. Personally, I hope they take the league by storm and end in the Premier League, god knows those fans suffered enough for it!
September 19, 2012 in Championship
Written by: Matt Harrison on September 19, 2012.
I hate the phrase “young, talented manager”. It’s banded about in the press far too much, and every pundit will acclaim any manager under the age of 45 to be “destined for big things” should they string together a couple of wins. It’s a fairly crazy scenario, but if there was one manager out there right now who deserves the accolade of “young, talented manager”, it’s Gus Poyet.
Being a Brighton fan must simply be incredible right now. After yo-yoing between League 1 and the Championship throughout the last decade, they have finally gained their footing in the 2nd tier and look to be on an ever upward trajectory. The fact that they have finally managed to move away from the Withdean and into their own home, the Amex Stadium, is definitely helping. The success of last season lead to the addition of 5,000 more seats at the stadium, almost all of which were filled on Friday night for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday. There are already plans to take capacity up to 30,000.
It is very hard to begrudge Brighton any of their success. I went to see my team play away at the Withdean back in 2002 and the one thing I took away from that visit was that the club really seemed to give a crap about their fans. Every match ticket (including away fans) had free ‘park and ride’ vouchers attached to it, as there was no parking near the stadium. The park and ride buses were frequent, clean, friendly and the fans chatted happily with opposition fans. In the Amex, this attitude appears to have been kept. The away stand concourse is lit with the away team’s colours, the North Stand stays open for fans (home or away) after the game to wait for trains, and they even display the train times on the big screens. Basically, even if your team loses, it seems like a nice place to see them lose.
Aside from an excellent stadium, Brighton are actually playing pretty well. Poyet doesn’t have many star names, but has them playing fast attacking football home and away; so far, it’s reaped rewards. They’ve hit the back of the net 11 times in the last three games. Record signing Craig Mackail-Smith is finally finding his goal-scoring boots after a hard time last season – if you haven’t yet seen his over head kick against Burnley, then do it now! The experience and guile of Vicente brings something different to the league, plus Wayne Bridge has started off his loan spell well, scoring twice. Now he enjoys two Saturdays every week (pun very much intended). Poyet has also turned the likes of Will Buckley, Dean Hammond and Gordon Greer into solid Championship performers.
I’m very surprised that Brighton were able to hold onto Poyet this summer. He must surely have been a contender for numerous jobs (whether he wanted to be or not) – Norwich, Birmingham, Swansea all would have probably taken a look at the big Uruguayan. Brighton will do extremely well to hold on to him when the inevitable managerial merry-go-round begins in the winter. If Poyet stays, I can see him doing wonderful things with Brighton; the club is going in the right direction on and off the pitch, the team looks nailed on for at least a play-off spot and the manager looks like Premier League quality. Personally, I hope they take the league by storm and end in the Premier League, god knows those fans suffered enough for it!
