Worst defeats

[The Large One]

Following on from El Presidente's nostalgiafest about conceding 12 goals in two matches 40 years ago while playing for the most part in black-and-white, let's throw this one open -

What is the worst defeat you've witnessed by the Albion for which you suffered the most emotionally?

I suspect for many it will be the 5-0 defeat at the South London Cowsheds (not for me, I'd packed myself of to Madrid that weekend - it got me 1,500 miles from the inevitable pain fellow Brighton fans were experiencing) or the 2-0 defeat by the same arsonists at the end of last season.

For me, odd though it sounds, the 2-1 defeat to Southampton in the penultimate match at Withdean really pissed me off. Even though we were champions, we'd lost our unbeaten home record - and to... them.

What about you?

 

[pasty]

The last competitive home match at The Amex last season.

 

[Hillian1]

Too many to count, but the one that really sticks out is the 1-3 to Palace, first League defeat at The Amex and it had to be to them.

 

[Razzoo]

Huddersfield got seven we got one, but worse emotionally was when Sheff Utd. beat us 5-4 in a right see-saw of a game in the late 80's.

 

[Trevor]

Well luckily I missed the 5-0. Last year's play-off 2-0 certainly stung a bit but I was comforted by the fact that we had a pretty decent team. I saw both matches when we got knocked out of the cup by Sudbury Town (97?) - Our team was poor - we were losing the Goldstone and I was really low

 

[Gwylan]

Had this before. The answer will always be Darlington.

Not sure whether it was the 3-2 defeat at the Goldstone, the game that put us at the bottom of the league or the 4-0 defeat at Priestfield the following season. Gabbiadini (sp?) scored a hat-trick and we looked abysmal.

I'd say the latter for the sheer despair at the quality of the football but the former for the shock of the position we found ourselves in. That was the day I first began to realise that Brighton was in danger of folding completely

 

[ali jenkins]

Easily either the 1-3 or 0-2 Palace games. Before the Poyet era a Brighton defeat (in my time supporting them anyway) was par for the course and there aren't any that spring to mind but since then there is a confidence (not to be confused with cockyness) that we can win games, especially those two.

The Walsall game at Withdean was just embarassing and there have been a few more like that but none have hurt like those two Palace games.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

The play off defeat to Notts County. Such great expectations ruined by bloody Warnock and Tommy "banana" Johnson.

 

[Return of the Rev]

luton jpt semi,well upset

 

[Simster]

0-5, 1-3 and 0-2 to the Nigels were all HORRIFIC, for different reasons.

But ignoring games against them, I'd have to say a drab 0-2 at Micky Adams' Fulham in 1997 - they went up in that season of pain. We even got a penalty on the only occasion we got into their box, and naturally it was missed. We were dire, and it was the first time I'd seen us that season - suddenly I realised why we were so poor. We looked unfit, shit clueless and bereft of ideas. Awful.

 

[pasty]

The play off defeat to Notts County. Such great expectations ruined by bloody Warnock and Tommy "banana" Johnson.

Good call. However, fortunately (as it turned out) I was far too pissed to remember much about that day.

 

[Icy Gull]

Blanking Palace games it was an evening Goldstone match when Jimmy Case was manager. I don't even remember who we played or what the score was but we had lost again and it ended up with a demonstration by a large proportion of the crowd outside the entrance to the West Stand. Cold, miserable evening and acceptance by me that we were going to the wall

 

[BensGrandad]

9 -0 I think it was away to Middlesbro, plus I seem to remember getting spanked by Northampton 7 or 8 nil, but for emotions there are many from the Cup Final which we could and should have won, the first game in Div 1 against Arsenal as we had arrived and shown that we werent ready up to the Palace 5.-0 and of course last seasons play off at The Amex.

 

[Grombleton]

Burnley.

Let me explain. It wasn't a negative emotional experience, but a very positive one. To see the team pull together (well, 9 of them) and continue to battle on when most would just roll over and take a spanking...and to even get close to snatching it at the end.
Best of all was the crowd - biggest wall of noise i've experienced at the Amex and the extended Great Escape rendition...i can still hear it now if i concentrate hard enough.

Don't get me wrong, Palace defeats always sting, but this was a different kind of defeat.

 

[Shuggie]

Had this before. The answer will always be Darlington ... the 4-0 defeat at Priestfield the following season ... for the sheer despair

Embarrassing defeats by the Nigels are part and parcel of a rivalry that will continue without us one day but will be taken up by our chidlren and our children's children. Never mind their posh degrees and middle-class liberal leftie tendencies, mine have learned to despise the Nigels "with a bitterness rarely seen outside the Balkans" (don't know who said that but it's spot on).

That day at Gillingham we had to contemplate a future without the club. No comparison between a spot of indigestion and a deep existential crisis. That 0-4 was the worst day. The only thing that felt anywhere near as bad was that day at Hereford. I even feel sick writing about it.

 

[Pantani]

Blanking Palace games it was an evening Goldstone match when Jimmy Case was manager. I don't even remember who we played or what the score was but we had lost again and it ended up with a demonstration by a large proportion of the crowd outside the entrance to the West Stand. Cold, miserable evening and acceptance by me that we were going to the wall

Lincoln? 3-1 defeat, all their goals from corners as I remember. Very much felt like the end that day.

 

[daveinprague]

Losing 2-7 to Bristol Rovers when Clough was manager....and the embarrassment of his young (at the time) son, requesting to see the
Bristol goals again during match of the day.

 

[Peter Grummit]

Plenty but the worst was Kingstonian 2-1 loss in the FACup 1994. Winner scored by an ex-Palace player and I went along with an Everton-supporting mate who lives in Kingston, and has taken the mick ever since.

PG

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

4-0 away defeats at Brentford two years running, which oddly enough I remember as good fun evenings out.

 

[Rookie]

West ham away couple of years back, fuming. Losing fair enough but that was just inept, not sure I ever forgave Painter!