[Albion] Football Focused

[ryans father]

I'm being sucked in again.

From around February I was completely absorbed in the Albion and our plight to reached the promised land. From March, with nothing particularly meaningful to do with my time, I spent almost every waking minute reading about the Albion, watching the Albion (and our competitors) and writing about the Albion on these very pages. Working through fixtures, expected results and the subsequent league table became a daily task.

For the first time ever, I spent considerable periods of time on rival messageboards. Not posting you understand. None of that "Brighton fan in peace" bollocks, just reading. Trying to gain insights of how others were feeling and trying to discover signs of weakness that would give me further hope as to the chances of our success.

For the last few weeks of the season, Ashes by Embrace was pretty much on repeat - on my phone when out, on the Sonos at home and in my head. For those that don't recall, it was the music that accompanied the club's end of season montage. A magnificent piece of work by the Albion's videographer chaps.

The football break that the Summer represents was very much needed. Last season was incredible but I was drained by the end of it. Immensely proud but also so disappointed that the likes of Bruno didn't get what I feel they deserved. Not what I deserved, what they deserved.

This season started slowly. I missed the first few weeks on a family holiday and then international breaks make the opening months of the season annoyingly stop-start. But this week it's dawned on me - I'm getting sucked in again. The trigger wasn't Saturday's incredible result, but looking at the table after and noticing that we already have a significant buffer on the teams placed seventh and below.

After the whole club gave so much last year, it felt like a nearly impossible task to go again and reach the same heights, but it looks like we may be able to do just that.

I have an evening commitment this Saturday night which means I should watch the Bristol City game down here on TV, but I still might go. I'm considering going to see whatever the next game in that ridiculous competition at the Amex next week. Orient, I think. Remember when they were our temporary rivals, often getting the better of us? And I really can not wait for the Villa game.

I'm sucked in again. Massively. Anyone else?

Awesome post.

like most others i had a bit of a hangover from last season which makes the abilities and attitudes of the players and management even more astounding.

This week is another massive game but the togetherness is there for everyone to see again and with players to come back in I believe we will only get stronger this season.

Stephens and Kayal signing contract extensions would give everyone even more of a boost, so that is my hope for November.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

I'm being sucked in again.

From around February I was completely absorbed in the Albion and our plight to reached the promised land. From March, with nothing particularly meaningful to do with my time, I spent almost every waking minute reading about the Albion, watching the Albion (and our competitors) and writing about the Albion on these very pages. Working through fixtures, expected results and the subsequent league table became a daily task.

For the first time ever, I spent considerable periods of time on rival messageboards. Not posting you understand. None of that "Brighton fan in peace" bollocks, just reading. Trying to gain insights of how others were feeling and trying to discover signs of weakness that would give me further hope as to the chances of our success.

For the last few weeks of the season, Ashes by Embrace was pretty much on repeat - on my phone when out, on the Sonos at home and in my head. For those that don't recall, it was the music that accompanied the club's end of season montage. A magnificent piece of work by the Albion's videographer chaps.

The football break that the Summer represents was very much needed. Last season was incredible but I was drained by the end of it. Immensely proud but also so disappointed that the likes of Bruno didn't get what I feel they deserved. Not what I deserved, what they deserved.

This season started slowly. I missed the first few weeks on a family holiday and then international breaks make the opening months of the season annoyingly stop-start. But this week it's dawned on me - I'm getting sucked in again. The trigger wasn't Saturday's incredible result, but looking at the table after and noticing that we already have a significant buffer on the teams placed seventh and below.

After the whole club gave so much last year, it felt like a nearly impossible task to go again and reach the same heights, but it looks like we may be able to do just that.

I have an evening commitment this Saturday night which means I should watch the Bristol City game down here on TV, but I still might go. I'm considering going to see whatever the next game in that ridiculous competition at the Amex next week. Orient, I think. Remember when they were our temporary rivals, often getting the better of us? And I really can not wait for the Villa game.

I'm sucked in again. Massively. Anyone else?

Ask me again in April

 

[Salty_Seagull]

Top stuff thanks!

I'm a lurker and don't really post but over the last few weeks NSC has easily been my most visited website and is almost reaching levels seen at the end of last season. Can't get enough.

 

[JCL666]

I was ambivalent at the start of the season.

But now I'm hooked.

The 5-0 was the tipping point. Not just because of the high scoreline, but the manner in which it happened. CH tactically outmanoeuvred Alex Neil, and not just a little bit, he schooled him.

He set them up to counter attack, and at times we appeared to have 6 at the back. Norwich had higher possession and we only had 3 more shots.

Along with tactically outdoing the opposition, the players are usually pretty efficient. When we get the ball, we look like we are going to score. No possession for possessions sake.

From a football nerd perspective it's fascinating.



Of course, it's also f**king AWESOME that we're competing for promotion/playoffs and other teams rate us!!!

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

Never mind getting sucked in, it's gonna be better than getting sucked off at the end of this season!

 

[The Sock of Poskett]

It's cranking up, isn't it? Felt really hollow and gutted after the Boro game (not helped by some of the shenanigans our coach had to contend with in Boro town centre), then the ridiculous away leg at Hillsboro. Funnily enough, while the home play-off leg didn't deliver the deserved result, the atmosphere and conviction there made me think maybe we hadn't blown our best chance for a generation.

It's been a slow burner early on this season, but things are really catching light now - partly because if you analyse it, we've been getting great results without always playing that well. Away games we would have drawn last season, we're winning; places we've never got results (eg Hillsboro) we're getting them, and then Saturday's tour de force comes along.

AND we're missing one of our key central midfielders, and have some key squad members coming back to fitness.

Excited? Oh yes

 

[Jimmehh]

Absolutely getting sucked back into it again...

Although I didn't post, I spent most of the last few months of the last season on here, or reading news, looking at scores, trying to predict where we'd end up. I went to Sheffield in the PO and my god, getting home at 4am after that was deflating, but this season has started so well, with wins no one was expecting, I can definitely see it being a long 7ish months until May comes around and we see whether the guys can go one better.

Here's to hoping!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Was I ever sucked out (Wahey, madam etc)?

Maybe, sat on the train back from Boro with my mate and enough Black Sheep Ale to sink a battleship, being commiserated with by a Newcastle fan who still didn't know he'd be playing us this season, moaning about the Complete and Utter Shyster and then talking to Tony Bloom at King's Cross and hearing him repeat our conversation back to us in terms of anger and disappointment.

Maybe sitting on the bus back from the Wednesday home game with my son, being surrounded by their grinning goons goading us. Even then, the next morning I managed to write this.

But that's it. The summer, or at least the football break, was too short thanks to that abortion of a Euro 2016. The disappointment of not landing Pritchard and / or A.N. Other Striker was there as was a feeling of "oh, Dale, FFS" when I saw that tweet. The look on my son's face when he came back from the Brentford match I had to miss. But these are the only disappointments and we used to get a couple of them a week. Hell, under Sami they were permanent.

Other than that my tail and mojo have been up. I feel excited before every home game. I've just bought tickets for Cardiff away and I'm currently trying to work out how much of the Bristol City game I can watch on telly around our family trip to the fireworks. A mate offered to drive to Bristol for it earlier in the week and I had to remind him we were at this fireworks do together. We both still thought about it even though it would mean a divorce lawyer each.

I honestly believe I will have this feeling all the time that CH is manager. The day he goes - and I'm currently hoping he does a Fergie here - this football club will be a much worse place.

 

[Taybha]

I'm in my 43rd year of being sucked , whatever league whatever the circumstances we are in this will remain the case until iv'e sucked in my last breath .

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Champagne for Hughton.

Brighton and Hove Albion have won the LG Performance of the Week Award for their 5-0 victory against Norwich City at the Amex last weekend.

Glenn Murray’s hat-trick and second-half goals from Lewis Dunk and Anthony Knockaert secured all three points for the Seagulls, as Chris Hughton’s team overcame one of their promotion rivals.

A five-man panel from the League Managers Association, which included Howard Wilkinson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Joe Royle, Dave Bassett and Barry Fry, chose Albion’s triumph over the Canaries as the stand-out performance.


http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/brighton-hove-albion-norwich-city-3397008.aspx

 

[Official Old Man]

Time for the prediction spread sheet.

 

[JCL666]

Champagne for Hughton.

Brighton and Hove Albion have won the LG Performance of the Week Award for their 5-0 victory against Norwich City at the Amex last weekend.

Glenn Murray’s hat-trick and second-half goals from Lewis Dunk and Anthony Knockaert secured all three points for the Seagulls, as Chris Hughton’s team overcame one of their promotion rivals.

A five-man panel from the League Managers Association, which included Howard Wilkinson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Joe Royle, Dave Bassett and Barry Fry, chose Albion’s triumph over the Canaries as the stand-out performance.


http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/brighton-hove-albion-norwich-city-3397008.aspx

It was a ruthlessly efficient performance. Tactically it was something really special.

 

[el punal]

This season started magnificently for me. First game of the season against Nottingham Forest, a beautiful summer's evening, my grandson the Albion captain's mascot for the day, a dominant performance ending with a convincing 3-0 win.

Fast forward to now and I've taken in ten Albion games so far. Apart from our "blip" against Newcastle and Brentford, I feel that we've matched last years performances for the first third of this season. In fact, I would say that we are much stronger.

I often look at rival clubs fans' forums. It is heartening to see that we are considered to be one of the top teams for promotion, we are also considered to be one of the hardest teams to beat - rock solid at the back and dangerous going forward. Praise indeed after last season's early opinions denouncing us as lucky and we were only one game away from a catastrophic collapse!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Champagne for Hughton.

Brighton and Hove Albion have won the LG Performance of the Week Award for their 5-0 victory against Norwich City at the Amex last weekend.

Glenn Murray’s hat-trick and second-half goals from Lewis Dunk and Anthony Knockaert secured all three points for the Seagulls, as Chris Hughton’s team overcame one of their promotion rivals.

A five-man panel from the League Managers Association, which included Howard Wilkinson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Joe Royle, Dave Bassett and Barry Fry, chose Albion’s triumph over the Canaries as the stand-out performance.

[tweet]794505309293191168[/tweet]

 

[Bigtomfu]

The back end of last season was almost catastrophic from a career perspective. It was all I could do to not refresh NSC every hour at my desk, re-hash my permutation spreadsheet over and over and bore my desk colleagues and clients about our prospective chances constantly but like so many other posters above I really did have a huge amount of fatigue to contend with once it all settled.

It wasn't disappointment - that the players, club and fans had given absolutely every ounce of sweat in our quest I was certain - so there was tremendous pride and a unique togetherness that coursed through me. Never have I been more proud of our club.

This summer passed with relative low incidence of incidents - things like Stephens will always happen in football - and the club went about its business in a dignified manner, for me the buzzword of the Bloom/Houghton era, which I find excellent and frustrating in equal measure as it often leaves us feeding on scraps for insight and news of what's going on.

There is part of me that would like something to happen that would galvanise the support in the same way that Shoreham did (no I don't want another plane crash but something to bring that mentality back to the fore) and then perhaps it will eclipse last year for drama, pure visceral emotion and importantly atmosphere at games.

To this season I think we're better positioned than ever before in my 30 years of watching so yes I'm sucked in hook, line and sinker for sure.

 

[perseus]

I'm being sucked in again.


For the first time ever, I spent considerable periods of time on rival messageboards. Not posting you understand. None of that "Brighton fan in peace" bollocks, just reading. Trying to gain insights of how others were feeling and trying to discover signs of weakness that would give me further hope as to the chances of our success.

Any links please? Any good Toon ones?

General Championship http://www.footballforums.net/forums/championship.51/

From I gather, other clubs seems to raise their game against us, if they can. The seem to think of us as formidable opponents but not frighteningly dangerous.

Much the same as my opinion of the better teams.

 

[Brovion]

Actually this reminds me a bit of 78/79 (sorry, us old timers DO bang on about it a bit don't we?). That followed the heartbreak of missing out on the last day of the previous season. Also we started quite badly (I think our first home game ended in a 0-2 defeat to Cambridge Utd), and at one time we were as low as 12th, which we'd never been in 77/78. Can history repeat itself?

 

[perseus]

Recommended football sites:

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/England-Championship

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship

http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm

http://www.footballgroundguide.com/leagues/england/championship.html

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/Championship/Brighton

http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Actually this reminds me a bit of 78/79 (sorry, us old timers DO bang on about it a bit don't we?). That followed the heartbreak of missing out on the last day of the previous season. Also we started quite badly (I think our first home game ended in a 0-2 defeat to Cambridge Utd), and at one time we were as low as 12th, which we'd never been in 77/78. Can history repeat itself?

I have been thinking that too.

 

[Rugrat]

Time for the prediction spread sheet.

It's work in progress but just too fiddly until after the New Years game

But here's a sneak preview of row 2