Key moments in your support of the Albion?

[Bobby's Gull]

Just undertaking some research for a friends degree.

One of the questions is what are your key moments in your support of the club? (Doesn't have to be a specific game or win, can be something linked to your life)

Got me thinking really ..the Goldstone, Hereford 97, first match at Falmer & our recent promotion are obvious choices but it's difficult to narrow seasons of supporting the Albion to key moments.

I've gone for winning DIV 2 in 2002 as it was just before I left home for the first & last time. And it was also when I was managing to get into pubs underage in Brighton. Happy memories of the celebrations in town after we got presented with the DIV 2 trophy, missing the last bus & ending up at Three Bridges train station.

 

[J2 BHA]

I look forward to hearing others memories as likely a lot of them will prompt me to think about the same games/era etc!

Anyway, a few key memories that stick in my mind:

Chesterfield away on a Monday night (I think) where Bobby Z nicked the ball out of the goalies hands and scored in front of us - I know I'm getting old when I say this but I bought four pints in a pub near the away end before the game for a fiver and we still laugh about that now as it's not that long ago

Hereford away obviously not only for the sheer drama of the day but also as lots of my family come from there so we stayed over before and after. It made for a weird weekend really, what with us being so ecstatic and the locals being gutted

Colchester away when we won about 6-1 I think and chippy smashed a rocket in the goal in front of us, I love the memory of that old concrete terrace

Aldershot away when we won 6-1 (score line is just a coincidence, the beer and a laugh was more important than the result at away games for a good few years to be fair!) as met a guy on the platform at Clapham who turned out to be a really top guy and still a good mate of mine now

Oldham away in August when we won 3-1 (I think), it was the hottest I have ever been at a game as it was a scorcher of a day!

Barnet on Boxing Day away when it was the coldest I've ever been at a game

Sheffield Wednesday away, we drew 1-1 and chippy scored a 30 yard rocket. At the time I thought to myself it wouldn't get any better than seeing a Brighton player score a thirty yarder at a massive club like Wednesday!

As much as those are just a few of the amazing memories I have of supporting the Albion, my overriding memory by a long way, is how the Albion was the one thing me and my brother had in common that really brought us closer together after our dad passed away suddenly when he was 16 and I was 21

 

[Napier's Knee]

Nothing to do with individual matches but for me: going to my first game with my father when i was 7, carrying on going with him and then with friends. and then, after living away for a while (university, marriage), returning to the Goldstone after my father's death. I've never ever felt that supporting the Albion was a choice - it was fate and is as much a part of me as my right arm.

 

[amexer]

Have had season ticket with my father for 10yrs. For health resons fear he wont be able to go much longer. Would like to then go with my son. Key moment for me will be when I am told my fathers ticket goes to somebody on waiting list.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Nothing to do with individual matches but for me: going to my first game with my father when i was 7, carrying on going with him and then with friends. and then, after living away for a while (university, marriage), returning to the Goldstone after my father's death. I've never ever felt that supporting the Albion was a choice - it was fate and is as much a part of me as my right arm.

Apart from tweaking a few small details, put me down for this as well.

 

[jimhigham]

Seasons 95/96 & 96/97. The Dark Days. That was the point where what had always been a fairly firm commitment to the club became an obsession. When our club needed us, we stepped up and delivered.

 

[Blue3]

The two seasons going to Gillingham there were not that many of us and the football was truly awful

 

[Is it PotG?]

When you get taken along, aged about 6, with your Dad and a home made wooden stool it's about the atmosphere, pipe tobacco smell and evident passion all around for your local team, whatever the League status.

Never goes.

My first pitch invasion when we got promoted at The Goldstone, Newcastle in '79 and the Cup run in '83. Totally addictive.

 

[Gritt23]

Barnet on Boxing Day away when it was the coldest I've ever been at a game

LOL, I remember that day. My goodness it was cold. made worse by the fact that I think I got the kick-off time wrong, so was there earlier than I needed to be, AND the pub I was planning (not very well thought through) to meet my friends in pre-match was closed. With nothing better to do, I trudged into the ground, took up my seat - I had virtually a fully choice as it was ages to kick-off, the ground had only just opened - centre, near the back, and just froze. It was seriously grim, sat there on my own for a long time before anyone else showed up that I knew.

 

[Gritt23]

Easy at these times to be rejoicing and remembering other great days, promotions, and celebrations, but one memory that stands out for me was Canvey Island away. 4 of us went, and it was just such a grim mystery tour into what the possibility of non-league football would hold for us.

From turning up at a sports centre for pre-match drinks which advertised "football parking" but was miles from the ground, through to finding ourselves on a temporary stand with the rest of the park behind us. Then scraping, and it really was scraping, a 2-2 draw out of this park team, getting aggro, and a threw projectiles from the Essex boys on the way out. But it was the journey home that stands out. The 4 of us were just so down, possibly as down as I can ever remember us being. Before dropping me off where I was living in Bexley, we pulled in to the Three Blackbirds for some of the most miserable, downbeat post-match drinks I have ever experienced. To everyone else, we looked like we were sat there dejectedly staring into space, but oh no, we knew, we were staring into the abyss.

 

[1234andcounting]

Interesting question. Like so many fans, I was taken to my first match by my dad (a Spurs supporter who was convinced his boys would see the light eventually. We did, and carried on supporting the Albion.) in 1967.

I think the pivotal season for me was 1976-77 and if I were to choose one game it would be the League Cup win at West Brom. Up until that point. the Albion had been nothing special in football terms in the period I had been watching them, apart from a handful of really good performances in 1971-72. We absolutely played the other Albion off the pitch and Wardy was unstoppable, winning 2-0. West Brom were riding high in the old First Division and had, I think, beaten Man U 4-0 in their previous home game. This match sealed the deal for me, just as well as I was off to university the following week. I am convinced that if I had gone away to university and been faced with other periods in the Albion's history (late 80s/early 90s, mid 2000s) I would have drifted away from the club.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

My key moment was my first game, 1973. I didn't really care much for little old Brighton until I saw them play Chelsea, from there on in I was hooked.

 

[The_Viper]

First game I ever went to was Northampton Town away in the Worthington Cup 2nd round when I was 7 or 8. Up til that point I supported about 7 different teams. We lost 2-1 but I left a Brighton fan.

Brighton 6-2 Torquay in 2000 at the Withdean Zamora scored a hattrick, I remember going with my dad and how shit the ground was. Never got to go to the Goldstone.

Swindon playoff semi final, that late late late playoff drama was the first time I was so emotionally drained as a football fan I cried and I wasn't even sad, just drained

Away at Peterborough in the 'cup final' or 'nightmare on London Road' game, never been in a terrace before and it was total pandemonium and one of the best things I have ever experienced as a fan, I really want safe standing back, it was just so so good.

Away at Walsall when we won the league, running onto the pitch, that Bennett thunder*******, the players on the pitch with us, lifting that ridiculous foil trophy, the side stand and the entire end behind the goal booming with atmosphere. So good.

Doncaster at home, I'd never got to see the Goldstone, my dad spent his youth there, I spent mine in Leicester having the piss ripped out of me by my mates for supporting a shit team with a shit ground and shit this and that etc I managed to get one of the last chunk of tickets in the East near the away supporters, the GG were sat right behind me and I just soaked it in, wandering around the ground for a good hour before kick off. Unfortunately none of my family were able to go so I was the only one who went. The atmosphere, the montage of big moments before kick off, going a goal down, some bloke we signed from Watford coming on, the rest being history. Hugging about 30 strangers in the East after his 2nd goal and meeting up with friends in the north afterwards and just KNOWING we were going places. It was amazing.

Fulham away, 2nd game of the season in August 2015. It was my last game before moving out to the USA. What a memory. Nothing else needs to be said about that other that there is nothing much better than Tomer standing on the hoardings within touching distance in front of you after a cool penalty finish, brilliant.

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Moments that stick in my mind and are therefore "key" if not always for the right reasons :
My 1st away game : Grimsby, c1976 : pure coincidence that we were visiting an aunt/uncle who lived just outside Grimsby : stood on old wooden terrace (aged about 7) in the Home end and was struck how loud the cheering was when they scored. we lost 2-1!
Spurs at Home 1978 : completely transfixed by the huge amounts of crowd trouble from my lofty seat in the West Stand, first time I remember being scared and seeing grown men scared too as were chased back into the West after the game.
Chelsea at Home 1983/84 : my first game on the terraces : the second time I was genuinely scared!
My 1st Away Kit : the yellow Bukta one from 1978 - 80 : felt so different putting it and playing in the park with it on.
Peterborough FA Cup 5th round 1987ish : 5-6000 Brighton Fans in one terrace : the first time I felt we were a big Club.. snow, packed in, feet off the ground whilst being swept by the crowd - 2-2 in the snow.. just wouldn't happen now!
Aston Villa Away Cup Match : 6 years or so ago.. the day that got my boys (previously Cheslea and Arsenal) hooked on the Albion - seeing them get the thrill I had at the Peterbourough game above ..
Just realized a lot of these are Crowd moments rather than matches.. must say something about me and maybe doesn't help with the OPs research!

 

[DavidRyder]

Dean Wilkins free kick vs Ipswich in 1991. Although I wasn't in the ground, I'd had a huff at the impending draw so we left early (I know, don't even go there), but managed to watch it through the gap in the gate. Ran the length of the West stand to celebrate, on my own (as everyone was in the ground where they should be, ahem!).

 

[Seasidesage]

Probably says something about me but the ones that stick in my mind are the bad times.

1st game I remember going to was the Bristol Rovers 2-8 one.
I remember the 3-0 Blackpool game at home only to find out about the Saints v Spurs carve up.
Walton and Hersham
Oxford Utd
Epsom and Ewell
Sudbury Town the list of infamy goes on and on...
Getting beat at Brentford 4-0 year after year
Archer and the rest of the c**ts
Hereford (We won but..)
Losing to you know who in the Play offs
Getting beat 5-0 by you know who
Middlesborough

I've come to the conclusion that not only am I a miserable git but that these bad times define your supporter journey rather than just the good. I'd hate to be a fan of a club that only has good times and think a crisis is when they've drawn in the CL or something.

 

[DavidRyder]

Probably says something about me but the ones that stick in my mind are the bad times.

1st game I remember going to was the Bristol Rovers 2-8 one.
I remember the 3-0 Blackpool game at home only to find out about the Saints v Spurs carve up.
Walton and Hersham
Oxford Utd
Epsom and Ewell
Sudbury Town the list of infamy goes on and on...
Getting beat at Brentford 4-0 year after year
Archer and the rest of the c**ts
Hereford (We won but..)
Losing to you know who in the Play offs
Getting beat 5-0 by you know who
Middlesborough

I've come to the conclusion that not only am I a miserable git but that these bad times define your supporter journey rather than just the good. I'd hate to be a fan of a club that only has good times and think a crisis is when they've drawn in the CL or something.

I spoke to an Arsenal fan, and although they win things, play in Europe etc, I said to him that you will never experience the joy of a promotion - and let's face it, they are bloomin' marvellous moments.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Earlydoors March 1997. Got carted off by ambulance in front of me weekend-visitation kids on the Sunday with a life-threatening chest infection that all the asthma inhalers in all the world failed to shift. Discharged myself from the RSCH on the Thursday. Back in the North Stand on the Saturday for the 4-4 Orient game. Guess that might have been the defining moment when it felt like it really meant a lot. Even though I felt like seven shades of sh*t.

 

[Paskman]

Villa at home in 72, I was in the South Stand - Willie Irvines's goal, plus we were on March of the Day later[emoji106].

I was a regular at Home after that, but did not go to an Away game until Pompey on Boxing Day 1976. Horton missed a penalty and we lost 1 - 0, but I never lost the thrill of a new ground [emoji838]️[emoji838]

 

[crabface]

Walsall away, when we went 1 nil down and Gary Hary and Lloyd Owusu scored, the surge and pandemonium on the terrace was something il never forget.