Your First Experience of the Albion

[SUA Seagull]

It's amazing what influence a football club (our Albion) can have on our lives.

How very true. My first Albion game was at Bournemouth away Dec 1969, 0-0. I will always remember it because the programme match title literally took up the whole cover "Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club versus Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club"! I was only 11 but I can still vividly recall Albion's Alex Dawson having a shot that hit the left post, rolled along the goal line, hit the right post and bounced out! I was instantly hooked and have been drawn to Sussex ever since.

I still have the Albion scrapbooks I made up in the 60s and 70s with newspaper cuttings and my own handwritten score sheets, league tables, scorers etc. As a north Londoner surrounded by Spurs and Arsenal fans I was considered by my schoolmates to be somewhat strange in voluntarily supporting a (then) lowly third division club. I often get quite wistful when at the Amex, seeing how far we've come, what an incredible set up we now have in all departments, and reflecting on other clubs less fortunate than ourselves who've slipped down the ladder and who will probably never have the chance to experience at their clubs the enjoyment we routinely receive from ours.

I indoctrinated my son, then 6, in the "Albion way" by dragging him to the Goldstone in Oct 1994 to watch a turgid 1-1 draw with Rotherham. He too was hooked and like me is now a STH. Albion is our shared passion and has been - and will always be - a huge part of our lives.

 

[Petunia]

You should see my spreadsheet! Uwe's goal last night was the 1058th I've seen...

Dedication, obsession or insanity? You decide!

Good grief. Probably a combination of all 3!

I have to admit I have spreadsheets for all sorts of things but that is truly impressive...........or totally mad

 

[Napier]

1971, a 0-2 home defeat to Halifax. The daughter of my parents' friends took me. I was seven years old and hooked.

 

[Norman Potting]

This very game which miraculously is on YouTube - or at least the "highlights" are - Ward even scored. You may be able to spot me on the terraces below the West Stand, near the SW corner. Look for a tallish chap with two slightly shorter friends who got me into the habit. Glad to say that both are still attending games, one with younger son and me with youngest daughter.

 

[dennis]

1976 League cup V Derby County.

Peter Ward scored after 38 seconds

Over 30 thousand.

Immediately hooked

 

[Invicta]

4-1 home defeat to Liverpool in 1979. Absolutely loved it and that was it - Brighton were my team.

 

[Davemania]

I don't remember what the first game was or the date, wish I could. It was either 1984 or 1985, league game. I was only 8 years old but I remember some things like travelling to the game in a Ford Capri, classic car. Carrying my stool to the match (it had a blue and white weave on top) the lush green Goldstone turf, chain smoker older fans on the East terrace things like that. Rude songs from the North stand. I remember getting into trouble because I went home and was dribbling a football round the house singing that the referee is a wanker. No idea that was a rude word

 

[Bodian]

Autumn 1977 v Hull City. My older cousin took me to the west terrace. A goal down and Wardy scored, place went potty and my cousin said something like 'doesn't happen very often' - except that a minute later he scored again and the place went pottier.

What I can't really believe is that by the end of the season (the Blackpool game) I was going with my mates from school or on my own. I was only 12! What was my mum thinking of??

 

[Goldstone1976]

My first Albion experience was a home game v Swindon in 1976...

That was my first game too! 4-0. Went alone as a 13-year old in the North Stand. Learned pretty quickly to stand immediately in front of a barrier, not behind it. Stood in the same place ever after - about half way up, just to the left of the goal as seen from the stand.

 

[AmexRuislip]

That was my first game too! 4-0. Went alone as a 13-year old in the North Stand. Learned pretty quickly to stand immediately in front of a barrier, not behind it. Stood in the same place ever after - about half way up, just to the left of the goal as seen from the stand.

I was only 10 then, but still an addict

 

[Questions]

I wish I could remember if my first game was the 66/67 season or the 67/68 season. It bugs me. i can't remember my first game.................I've even thought about hypnotherapy.

 

[ExmouthExile]

My first experience was at the Goldstone in October 1983 and we were playing Portsmouth. I was standing at the northern end of the east terrace, down the front, don't know why or how I ended up there as it was the one and only time I ever stood on that side. Portsmouth fans were allocated the whole north stand, I don't know why that was either, maybe someone can enlighten me? I can't remember anything of the game as it was lively enough off the pitch. I remember dodging wave after wave of bottles and coins coming from the direction of the Pompey fans, and watching them trying to climb over the fencing like wild animals, they didn't succeed though. From that day on I was hooked.

 

[The Birdman]

My first season that I can remember finished with this game.
We all know how this season finished.
Look at the cost for season tickets and trains and the crowd size for the fourth division.

 

[The Birdman]

Does anyone remember the score and crowd.

 

[Seagull73]

Mine was Peter Ward! 1-1 v Watford, Jan 1st 1983.

I've just found that game on Youtube too, blimey, very exciting. Suffice to say, nothing I've just watched jogs any memories. Age. Memory. Where's the nurse?

Good lord, I'm absolutely certain that was mine too!!! Although didn't turn out to be a regular until about '86...

 

[blue'n'white]

My first home game was against West Brom in the early 80s

 

[whitelion]

My first season that I can remember finished with this game.View attachment 83667View attachment 83668View attachment 83669View attachment 83670
We all know how this season finished.
Look at the cost for season tickets and trains and the crowd size for the fourth division.

A lot of opposition fans don't realise that historically we've had very large crowds for the Division we were playing in.

Their arguments centre around Withdean/Amex and how we've managed to grow from one to the other.

 

[The Birdman]

They only counted the ones that attended but not the ones that would slip in.

 

[half time scores]

My first season that I can remember finished with this game.View attachment 83667View attachment 83668View attachment 83669View attachment 83670
We all know how this season finished.
Look at the cost for season tickets and trains and the crowd size for the fourth division.

My first season also, first memory is the chap in my avatar running up and down the wing.
He's number 11 in that line up.

 

[1234andcounting]

Fifty years ago next Wednesday. April 12 1967; we lost 1-0 to Torquay United. After that, things could only get better, which they did, then they got worse, and then they got better. Repeat ad infinitum.