The 'real' history of the BHA/Palace rivalry, according to npower...

[element]

I've just had a mailout from npower, and this little nugget was enclosed...

'Crystal Palace vs Brighton & Hove Albion

The Managers’ Feud, 1976

The Palace and Brighton feud began during the feisty 1976/77 season-long battle for promotion. Palace were managed by Terry Venables and Brighton had Alan Mullery in charge. The two managers themselves already had a rivalry of their own after falling out over the captaincy as players while at Tottenham.

Both the players and the fans followed their managers lead. The two clubs met five times throughout that season and the matches were littered with incident. But it was the third replay of a first round FA Cup clash that finally lit the touch paper.

First of all Brighton had a perfectly good goal disallowed. Then to add insult to injury they scored from the penalty spot only for it to be disallowed for encroachment. Brighton’s Brian Horton then duly missed. To this day referee Ron Challis is referred to by Seagulls as the “Challis of the Palace.”

Both clubs went on to win promotion that year but 36 years later the mutual animosity remains fervent. After all, no one enjoys a good grudge quite like a football fan, eh?...'

Any grain of truth in it folks

 

[rocker959]

Started in 74 , first game of the season at home, August 17th

 

[Icy Gull]

Sounds about right to me. The Venables/ Mullery rivalry helped ignite it and the handful of loose change thrown in front of the Palace fans by Mullery as he walked past them whilst telling them "that's all your worth" is the stuff of legend.

 

[Brovion]

It was certainly the event that sealed it, but it didn't come out of nowhere. As rocker959 points out (and Return of the Rev will do the same) it started to kick off about two years prior to that. However if you want to pick a single event then the Challis match is definitely it.

 

[Leas]

i thought it started when Albion were promoted to division 1 in 1976/77 but palace were already in div 1 and they were the nearest club to Albion ? what i do know is that my friend started off the birth of the " seeeeagulls " chant from the north stand when we were playing palace , there chant then was " eeeeeagles " ( not sure if it still is now? ) the palace were all packed chicken run ( old east terrace ) giving it there chant when my mate pointed to a seagull flying over the north stand and started chanting " seeeeeeagulls " the rest is history , in the later years he was in the argus for banning himself from the Goldstone ground as he was getting into to much trouble

 

[the wanderbus]

i thought it started when Albion were promoted to division 1 in 1976/77 but palace were already in div 1 and they were the nearest club to Albion ? what i do know is that my friend started off the birth of the " seeeeagulls " chant from the north stand when we were playing palace , there chant then was " eeeeeagles " ( not sure if it still is now? ) the palace were all packed chicken run ( old east terrace ) giving it there chant when my mate pointed to a seagull flying over the north stand and started chanting " seeeeeeagulls " the rest is history , in the later years he was in the argus for banning himself from the Goldstone ground as he was getting into to much trouble

I thought it all started in 1967 when we played palace in the fairs cup final and we started chanting seagulls at them because they are vermin.

Well theres as much truth in that as in Leas post.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

I've just had a mailout from npower, and this little nugget was enclosed...

'Crystal Palace vs Brighton & Hove Albion

The Managers’ Feud, 1976

The Palace and Brighton feud began during the feisty 1976/77 season-long battle for promotion. Palace were managed by Terry Venables and Brighton had Alan Mullery in charge. The two managers themselves already had a rivalry of their own after falling out over the captaincy as players while at Tottenham.

Both the players and the fans followed their managers lead. The two clubs met five times throughout that season and the matches were littered with incident. But it was the third replay of a first round FA Cup clash that finally lit the touch paper.

First of all Brighton had a perfectly good goal disallowed. Then to add insult to injury they scored from the penalty spot only for it to be disallowed for encroachment. Brighton’s Brian Horton then duly missed. To this day referee Ron Challis is referred to by Seagulls as the “Challis of the Palace.”

Both clubs went on to win promotion that year but 36 years later the mutual animosity remains fervent. After all, no one enjoys a good grudge quite like a football fan, eh?...'

Any grain of truth in it folks

We scored the penalty at Stamford Bridge but a Palace player encroached and we were made to re-take it and missed it.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Sounds about right to me. The Venables/ Mullery rivalry helped ignite it and the handful of loose change thrown in front of the Palace fans by Mullery as he walked past them whilst telling them "that's all your worth" is the stuff of legend.

"You're not worth that" is what I recall & prefer as more dismissive...
'We hate Challis' boomed out around the Goldstone 20 years on

 

[TheMajor]

Good old Mullers - can't we invite him down as an Albion legend for the game next March?

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

i thought it started when Albion were promoted to division 1 in 1976/77 but palace were already in div 1.....

....and Blyth Spartans won the FA Cup

 

[glasfryn]

i thought it started when Albion were promoted to division 1 in 1976/77 but palace were already in div 1 and they were the nearest club to Albion ? what i do know is that my friend started off the birth of the " seeeeagulls " chant from the north stand when we were playing palace , there chant then was " eeeeeagles " ( not sure if it still is now? ) the palace were all packed chicken run ( old east terrace ) giving it there chant when my mate pointed to a seagull flying over the north stand and started chanting " seeeeeeagulls " the rest is history , in the later years he was in the argus for banning himself from the Goldstone ground as he was getting into to much trouble

the north end of the East terrace was definitely not palace as I was there with about 3 k others
as for the "seagulls" chant that came from the north stand and was almost immediately taken up by the East terrace then later on by those in the West stand(when they eventually woke up)


they were good days and even then the with all that going on the bile was not as bad as it is now and I for one cannot understand it

 

[Gregory2Smith1]

Pompey took the piss out of us,just as Millwall did out of Palace

The opening game of the season did kick off,but that wasn't when the rivalry took hold

That was when we played them 5 times a couple of seasons later

 

[Tory Boy]

All I know is that I was singing rude songs on the school bus about the scum a few years before 1976.

Those were the days.

TB

 

[Everest]

i thought it started when Albion were promoted to division 1 in 1976/77 but palace were already in div 1 and they were the nearest club to Albion ? what i do know is that my friend started off the birth of the " seeeeagulls " chant from the north stand when we were playing palace , there chant then was " eeeeeagles " ( not sure if it still is now? ) the palace were all packed chicken run ( old east terrace ) giving it there chant when my mate pointed to a seagull flying over the north stand and started chanting " seeeeeeagulls " the rest is history , in the later years he was in the argus for banning himself from the Goldstone ground as he was getting into to much trouble

Your first fact is wrong, so is the second.

So the rest is probably wrong too, but I didn't bother reading it.

 

[Buckley's Mad Eye]

 

[element]

A thought occured to me about the original excerpt. If it was a third replay, Shirley it would mean we played them six times that season Two games in the league, plus the original cup tie, and three (?) replays I was a teenager at school at the time and might have been at one or two

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

A thought occured to me about the original excerpt. If it was a third replay, Shirley it would mean we played them six times that season Two games in the league, plus the original cup tie, and three (?) replays I was a teenager at school at the time and might have been at one or two

second replay, one here, one there, one at Stamford Bridge

 

[element]

second replay, one here, one there, one at Stamford Bridge

Nearly right

Original game at The Goldstone, replay at Smel*hurst, second replay at Stamford Bridge (neutral)

Hence 5 games that season

*77-78 Rothmans

 

[Weststander]

But, by the time of the Feb'1976 league clash at the Goldstone (Peter Taylor manager era), there was hatred in the stands and streets, and I remember surges of fans even in the old East Terrace to aim abuse at the ski-jump-nosed winger Peter Taylor.

The intense rivalry/hatred seemed already well established pre-Mullery and pre-Challis.
Perhaps simply because: near-ish neighbours, both well supported, and both on the rise at the same time, in an era of violence?

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Nearly right

Original game at The Goldstone, replay at Smel*hurst, second replay at Stamford Bridge (neutral)

Hence 5 games that season

*77-78 Rothmans

what did I say then?