Steve Gritt - were you there?

[Drumstick]

wow that makes me feel old.... went to all the home games and of course hereford... got home and my GF at the time who had no football knowledge had decorated the flat with congrats and got a load of our friends round for an impromtu survival party - was a nice touch. She binned me that summer lol. Happy days will be great to see Steve Gritt a true ledge... I will be standing and applauding the man!!

Makes me feel very young, When in reality I'm only a little young at 23. My clearest early memories of football is going to Gillingham, Unsurprisingly the Pig farm on the corner on the way to Gillingham sticks in my mind more than the football, Still it was enough to get me hook line and sinker!

 

[W.C.]

Most of the home games, unless they fell weirdly out of my every other weekend off work. Unfortunately that 4-4 with Orient was one of them. Amazing atmospheres. I was only in my third year of supporting the Albion and already thought it might be the end.

 

[keaton]

I went to every home game under Gritt. I took my mate to the Doncaster game and he came along to every home match till the end of the season apart from the one draw

 

[marshy68]

Makes me feel very young, When in reality I'm only a little young at 23. My clearest early memories of football is going to Gillingham, Unsurprisingly the Pig farm on the corner on the way to Gillingham sticks in my mind more than the football, Still it was enough to get me hook line and sinker!

good work - Gillingham was dark days - first football game live 1976 Brighton vs Mansfield ( i think 5-1 with a wardy hatrick?) I could be wrong. That was my fever pitch moment...

 

[Commander]

Came back for the Fans Utd game, I hadn't been for 2 seasons previously (my Dad's fault, not mine, I was young). Fans Utd was my first ever game with mates instead of my Dad (although strangely he chose that game to come back as well). Went to all the rest of the home games plus Cambridge away. Didn't sort out a ticket for Hereford in time, unfortunately. Then bought a season ticket at Gillingham, lost it, but didn't bother getting a replacement as it only cost £2 to get in for under 16's anyway.

 

[Barry Izbak]

I managed to blag myself into the press conference when shitface revealed Steve Gritt as the manager.

 

[Storer 68]

Anyone bringing a whistle? Wasn't his first game in charge the game of the whistle protest?

I do remember walking past a wall outside the Godstone on which someone had daubed "Grit believes Bellotti bullshit". Couldn't even spell his name right.

Great man.

https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?211351-Brighton-vs.-Hull-City-1996

 

[Commander]

I saw quite a few of the home matches, including all of the good ones (Doncaster, Hartlepool, Orient), but was too young to go to the away games.

I therefore thought we were f***ing BRILLIANT.

It's funny, I remember it like that as well. People say that was some of the worst football we have ever played, I remember us playing like Barcelona.

 

[Common as Mook]

Agreed. We got 47 points that season, almost all of which came at home, so we must have been doing something right. Didn't we only drop points in one home match (Orient) from Boxing Day onwards? I remember us absolutely BATTERING quite a few teams, but I was only ten so maybe it all seemed a bit more exciting than it really was.

It was magical.

Ian Baird and Craig Maskell were immense and Paul McDonald was like Pele.

 

[Commander]

Agreed. We got 47 points that season, almost all of which came at home, so we must have been doing something right. Didn't we only drop points in one home match (Orient) from Boxing Day onwards? I remember us absolutely BATTERING quite a few teams, but I was only ten so maybe it all seemed a bit more exciting than it really was.

Yes I think so. That Orient game was probably the best game I've ever seen. No doubt if I watched it again now it would look terrible, but it had pretty much everything you could have in a football match. 8 goals, penalties, red cards, last minute goals, supporters running on to attack the players etc etc.

It was bizarre how good we were at home, when we were utter shite away from home. If I remember correctly we beat Hartlepool away and drew against Hereford and Cambridge, and lost every single other away game.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Saw all the home games that season.

Gritt was appointed as a 'puppet' by those who were determined to run the club out of business. He would have been cheap with little experience, perfect cannon fodder except....

...he didn't play their game. He had pride, dignity and a will to do the impossible, save the Albion.

Defo one of our most respected managers, given what he had to work with and who he had to work for. I'll be forgoing my half time pint to applaud him tonight.

 

[Commander]

He had pride, dignity and a will to do the impossible, save the Albion.

Defo one of our most respected managers, given what he had to work with and who he had to work for. I'll be forgoing my half time pint to applaud him tonight.

Yet strangely, he didn't really have any success after he left us. He succeeded in probably the hardest job in football, but couldn't do it anywhere else.

 

[Fran112]

Wasn't there, but 10 of us, mostly pub managers, went on holiday last year to Dominican Republic
Mark Morris who played in that game was one of us.

He's now left the pub game, lives in Bournemouth and runs an upper class window cleaning business in Surrey.

 

[Knightsworld]

Was exiled in Somerset, managed to get a ticket for the Wigan game in the South West corner. T'was amazing looking at the North stand "bouncing" for large portions of the game.

 

[Commander]

I've always said it will be the best game I ever see in my life, even if I go to another 1,000. That season will always be the best of all time too, with only this season getting anywhere close.

The other thing I find quite strange is how well I can remember it all. I can still picture every second of Storer's goal in my memory, and of Ian Baird scoring against Barnet and us DISMANTLING Hull in Gritt's first game, but I probably couldn't tell you the details of some of the games I went to last season.

Remember Baird scoring with his ARSE in the last ever floodlit game against Barnet? That was superb.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

If I remember correctly we beat Hartlepool away and drew against Hereford and Cambridge, and lost every single other away game.

Our final away record was P23 W1 D4 L18 F12 A43

L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
W Hartlepool 3-2 (2/11/96)
L
L
L
D Scarborough 1-1 (28/12/96)
L
L
D Mansfield Town 1-1 (1/2/97)
L
L
L
L
L
D Cambridge Utd 1-1 (19/4/97)
D Hereford United 1-1 (3/5/97)

Oddly enough, the final programme of the season (vs Doncaster) has our last result at Cambridge United as a 1-0 defeat - I had never noticed that before.

 

[Icy Gull]

Saw most of the home games with Gritt in charge.

I watched the Doncaster game from above the East Terrace, so my last footballing experience inside the ground was a top vs bottom affair against high-flying Wigan, armed with Roberto Martinez and a certain Mr Paul Rogers.

Back when it was £8 to get in and the programme was £1.50.

Wigan were the runaway leaders weren't they, beating them was even less likely than us beating Reading tonight. so I'll be expecting another MASSIVE win in front of the bald one tonight.