Gordon the Gopher
Active member
Sad sad thread from start to finish.....ignorant petty jealousies from fans too young to know any better....those that have got swept up in the artificially created rivalry between Brighton and Palace. For seventy years Brighton had no natural rivals...50 miles from the nearest league club. Pompey had Southampton to worry about and Palace had Millwall. Brighton were like Carlisle..absolute neutrality, all on their own. But in the angry and violent 70's the new young and aggressive Brighton fans demanded a rivalry. It wasn't natural to pick Palace...a team nestling in South London with years of hatred for Millwall but the Mullery/Venables years threw us together, young managers, both passionate, both upwardly mobile, playing each other regularly.
It has never sat comfortably with me...hijacking and artificially creating a rivalry that shouldn't exist and has forced the younger Millwall fans to move onto West Ham leaving the older fans to their memories.
Brighton was a better club with no fierce rivalry...we were a stand alone club with a big catchment area, loyal and knowledgeable fans. The sort of ignorance shown on this thread indicates a lack of formal education and a complete lack of footballing knowledge and history.
The Brighton/ Palace ( so-called ) rivalry has besmirched our great club...it is ugly, ill-founded and un-necessary. It instills feelings of hatred and jealousy.
Sadly, it now seems deep-rooted and is being perpetuated by certain fans with nothing better to do....it is about time that these fans realise that BRIGHTON HAVE NO NATURAL RIVALS...THIS IS A LONDON CLUB WITH ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION WITH US WHATSOEVER.
I hope upon hope that Crawley Town FC rise through the ranks and in the years to come, a real Sussex rivalry develops. Not this pathetic, artificially created rubbish, that the sensible ones amiongst have to put up with.
My message to Palace fans is.....go back to your real roots and rivalry.....my message to Brighton fans is...start building up the rivalry now v Crawley and it will grow like Topsy and Palace will be consigned to history.
Should have started this on a separate thread mate as this will shake everyone out of their Sunday morning slumber. I have a lot of sympathy with what you are saying as I am a JCL as have only supported the Albion since moving down here 25 years ago. The Palace thing has never really bothered me and I actually get more wound up by certain big London teams north of the river who feel the need to poach those of a lower IQ from anywhere south of Crawley...and yes they would be our natural rivals although couldn't ever see it happening!