[Albion] Your best awayday with the Albion...

[London Irish]

Play off final. We can actually win such things

 

[Guinness Boy]

Was at that Ipswich game, been to Portman road a few times, always a good away day.

November 1988

We'd gone up the season before and then proceeded to lose our first eight games of the season in all competitions and ten of our first eleven (I just checked this - our one win was at home to the Champions of Europe ). God knows what NSC would have been like. Not a dry sheet in Sussex despite us having ok strikers.

By November we had one single point away from home. Then we went to Portman Road. A 3-2 win with a good turn out from the Albion on the away terraces and when the third went in it was one of those mental surges / group hugs / limbs everywhere moments, like that goal at Fulham by Dunk, only without the seats.

I went with a bunch of mates from school and as a sixth form 17 year old it was up to me to get the beers on the way home. No problem as Brighton crowded out the buffet on the first train back out of Ipswich with Mad Pete from Burgess Hill leading the chants and ordering the beers. Non stop singing all the way back to Liverpool Street. Bloody great.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Two gooduns...

That time in 1999 when just about everyone booked the same Virgin train to Carlisle.
Completely full of Albion fans who were so pissed when we arrived many could literally not walk.
Found our way to Carlisle Rugby Club next door to the ground who were most hospitable.
We won 1-0 with an old, fat and grey Warren Aspinall scoring the only goal to our right. Scenes.

The same year we got a coach to Chester on a Friday night. It was the live game on Sky.
We were absolutely terrible until Paul McDonald took a shameful dive in the 90th minute to win us the pen which was converted in front of us.
Got home at 4am just as Sky started a replay of the entire game so we cracked open another bottle of wine and stayed up all night watching it all again.

Somehow the memories of those grim old days are as good, if not better than winning at a Prem club.

I guess nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

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I missed that Carlisle one but went to the next one in April 2001. Based on the carnage described above we decided that it would be much more sensible to go up there for the weekend. Unbelievably I think [MENTION=238]Uncle Buck[/MENTION] sold it to us on the basis that we'd be able to drink in Carlisle without falling asleep.

On the way up on Friday afternoon we were taking it easy until we met a stag party going to Blackpool who got on at Milton Keynes. We went from 0 to pissed as **** by the time we got to Preston. And it was only Friday afternoon.

We were staying in Lancaster, so departed the train there, checked in to the B&B and headed straight out. Still only tea time and we found a trendy student bar. I can't remember much after that except for one of us trying to climb a statue in the town centre and [MENTION=687]Carrot Cruncher[/MENTION] nearly setting fire to a curry house with a candle. I can, however, remember the night in the B&B which consisted of all of us keeping the others awake with our snoring and farting.

The squad arrived at Lancaster station on Saturday morning hungover, sleep deprived and with backsides like the Japanese flag. So much for it being easier.

The Saturday I remember. I couldn't drink. I literally had alcohol poisoning. We drew 0-0. The game was shit.

By 6pm I was just about up for a can of beer or two to drown out the worst of the Fatty Taxman's strains of "Bright Eyes" and "i Think We're Alone Now" (Brighton Remixes).

 

[ozzygull]

Been to many but this one stands out because I was with my daughter and it was the first time I had witnessed her going bat sh!t crazy at a football match. Up until that point I was not even sure she even enjoyed going despite being a season ticket holder since the Amex opened. I wandered if she just saw it as her and my time. But I knew after this game she got it. It’s a day we still talk about a lot.

https://youtu.be/FDm6PJKlQBo

 

[Weststander]

Newcastle away .....promotion 79

This, and:

Molyneux, Easter 2017. We only got the tickets last minute, after people we knew thought it was wasn’t worth going. In the last hour of the match we tore them apart. AK and Muzza both got cramp late on, preventing them making it 4 or 5 nil. What a double act though.

The players didn’t rush down the tunnel, they spent ages with the huge following.

Fckn hell .... goosebumps thinking about that day and that period for the Albion.

We don’t normally rush back and went for a lovely Italian meal straight after in the city centre, beaming from ear to ear.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Hereford will be always my favourite.

Port Vale last game of the season April 2002 was another very good day out, we had already won the league but the large away end was packed with Albion fans. We won 1-0 with a Paul Watson free kick.
Myself and a mate went with on a coach full of decent lads from Worthing, not a normal supporters club type of trip.
Port Vale away end had a decent concourse with bars, unlike many lower league ground back then.

 

[Winker]

Birmingham in the promotion season. We went to a really grotty pub around the back of the shopping mall, The Cricketers?, where everything was coated in an inch of dust including the old dears behind the bar. Its saving grace was a pint of Boddingtons for about £2.20 a pint. We were losing 1-0 until Solly came on and changed the game - no really. Knocky equalised on 82 and then Muzza headed the winner on 95 before running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of us. That's when I knew we were going up.

 

[Cesar Chavez]

1 - 0 at Forest, first season promoted to Division 1 (79/80) They had been unbeaten at home for about two seasons, were Champions of Europe etc. They just couldn’t get the ball in the net, Ryan scored on a rate breakaway for us. Poured with rain. As I recall Lawrenson played midfield and Suddaby came into the middle at the back.


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[Barry Izbak]

Blimey there are some crackers on here. We've had some fun on the road haven't we?

I will always regret missing St James Park 79, but was at all the others mentioned above.

My favourite always will be Anfield on that Sunday afternoon in February 1983.

Absolutely mental scenes. And afterwards as we left the ground to brave the walk back to the coach, we were sort of surrounded by a bunch of scousers.

Gulp.

Then they said "good luck, now go all the way and win it with Jimmy Case and Melia"

Relief. And double joy.

I still have the BBC Sussex commentary somewhere, the special souvenir they sold on cassette. Fabulous day.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Bristol Rovers away (okay a home one for me) in the great escape season under Russell Slade. With OGH reprising his career as a speedy forward...Adam Hinshelwood almost jumping into the crowd when we went 2-1 up and the fact that the atmosphere all evening was awesome. Being home 10 minutes later made it good as well.

Yup, that was my first thought. OGH, Lloyd Owusu, Calvin Andrew, cider and pasties all over the shop. Amazing scenes.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Yup, that was my first thought. OGH, Lloyd Owusu, Calvin Andrew, cider and pasties all over the shop. Amazing scenes.

Southampton away, first game under Gus was pretty special as well

 

[Robinjakarta]

Newcastle away .....promotion 79

Yep. Unforgettable.

 

[RM-Taylor]

MK.Dons spent the friday night up there in the hotel overlooking the pitch , went to a few pubs before hand and all were pretty much full of Brighton supporters friday night so it was a good start .

Matchday ended up by the canal and the pub was rammed with Brighton inside and out , on leaving for the game a lad who thought it would be a good idea to roll down the embankment failed to stop and ended up in the drink luckily for him he had 10 or so equally inebriated chums to fish him out , he was fine .

The atmosphere that day was just electric 7500 away fans for a league 1 game , ridiculous.

The best bit was their penalty miss and the players coming over at the end of the game to celebrate with the fans .

Loved that matchday .

That was in the Championship, great day that was.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Maybe not the best but winning at Fulham under Nathan Jones was a great day. Also when Leo scored at Forest and
When Butters scored at West Ham and of course when Mc Shane scored at Palace.

But, nothing beats Hereford

I was at Fulham and Palace, but not Forest or West Ham. Following the despondency of the Hyypia period, the Fulham game was brilliant. We were pretty ordinary in the first half, but completely bossed the second half. Jonah in his suit looked every bit a manager as he strode across the pitch from the Cottage to the dugout. I even thought he might get the job after the game, but I think the appointment of Chris Hughton had already been made. I was staying at my flat in Battersea for the night, and was so euphoric I decided to give the train a miss and walked the whole way back, enjoying every minute of it. As brilliant as the Palace game was, it was fairly obvious that we were in trouble, which tempered it somewhat, though it was very enjoyable waiting incognito on the platform at Thornton Heath, surrounded by hordes of hacked off Palace fans.

Liverpool 2 Brighton 2 - FA Cup 1991.

Unbelievable trip. Massive support, whole of the stand behind the goal. Seagull special train. Seats in second row by the goal where Mike Small and Johnny Byrne did the magic....utter scenes!!!


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Yes, a brilliant day from beginning to end, and a game we would have won, had Mike Small not been greedy and passed the ball to John Byrne. I thought we did very well in the replay, but the players were knackered. When Ian Rush equalised, I was willing Liverpool to score again, as I thought we would get mullered in another replay at Anfield (FA Cup games didn't go to penalties in those days; you just kept having replays). It was still gutting to get knocked out, as Liverpool's next round games against Everton were equally brilliant.

But the away game that stands out for me was one at Swansea in 1999, when they played their home games on a Friday night if the Welsh Rugby team was playing the next day. I had gone to university at Buckingham aged 29, as a mature student. I hadn't written an essay in 11 years and was finding it quite a struggle. I finished my last word just before 4.30 on the Friday afternoon, and having looked at Ceefax and seeing we had a game, I thought "why not"? A mad idea, but I managed the journey in 2 hours 52 minutes, even with the queues at the Severn Bridge. I parked on the seafront, and arrived by the delightful edifice of Swansea Prison, and met another Albion fan who was also struggling to find the away entrance, a steward warning us not to go the other side of the ground in colours. When I eventually got in, there were only about another 80 Albion fans on that huge terrace behind the goal.

It's fair to say that the Vetch Field was a bit of a dump (the Gents' was literally three walls and a drain, with no cover, and the refreshment stand was a kiosk with its serving hatch poking through a gap in the security fence). However, at least it was under cover, and even with our small number we were able to make quite a noise, and there was a very good atmosphere from the North Bank to our left, where even a small number of home fans generated a lot of noise. The team wasn't very good at the time, despite Brian Horton's efforts, but they gave a pretty good account of themselves that night. After Mark Walton had been beaten from distance, and Swansea had taken the lead again after a rare error from Ian Culverhouse, I thought we were in for a hiding, but Ross Johnson, who had a belter of a game, equalised twice with identical headers and was only denied a hat trick by a fine save from the Swansea keeper. I was glad of the security fence, as a group of meatheads invaded the pitch from the Main Stand and went for Mickey Bennett.

I met another Albion fan who was going for a night out in Cardiff, and gave him a lift, so I at least had company for part of the journey home, and then sat with another bunch in the restaurant upstairs at Membury Services at midnight drinking tea. I got home at about 2 am, and I think I spent the whole of the next day sleeping. A most enjoyable experience, that whetted my appetite for following the Albion again. Apart from the 4-1 stuffing at Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, it was my first away game since 1993.

 

[Biffer]

Just thought of another.
Did anyone else see us play Real Madrid in 1983 at the old Real Mallorca stadium ?

We played really well and only lost to a very very late goal.

Forget hot dog sellers, programme sellers etc. They had blokes wandering through the terraces selling people rum and coke. Great effort.

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[West Upper Seagull]

IIRC, that was 2 weeks after a 0-4 away win at Charlton. I was at both and couldn't quite believe I'd witnessed two consecutive away wins with an aggregate 0-7 scoreline!

Completely agree with these 2 games in our League 1 title winning season (Charlton 4-0 and Peterborough 3-0) - particularly as they were the first 2 away days I took my son with me, who would have been 8 at the time (he’s not stopped loving the away days with me ever since). Watching the buzz and excitement he got from these 2 matches and the atmosphere in the Albion end was something I’ll never forget as much as the fact these were the 2 most complete and perfect away performances I’ve ever seen !

I have to also mention Hereford - probably the best and worst ! Never been so tense and on edge during 90 mins of football but the elation at the end and the journey home was unbelievable. This even tops the 83 cup final because there was so much more at stake.

 

[brighton terra]

The play-off semi final victory at The Den. The atmosphere was electric!