Brighton Bombshell! – Brighton 1 Newcastle United 0 (report, highlights, interviews…)

Posted on January 29th, 2012 | 10 Comments |

Quite simply, this was a game United should not have lost. Even with the cautious tactics employed by Pardew we were clearly a class above, dominated 75% of the game and had a penalty appeal for a blatant handball turned down. With a bit more adventure and somebody up front who actually had a clue, we could and should have won this comfortably. Instead, we were dumped out of the cup by a fluke deflected goal and a Brighton team who didn’t get into the game until the last 15 minutes. I’m beginning to think Sir Kevin Keegan was right about the club being cursed.

I watched the game on ESPN. The high point was watching “Gully’s Girls” the Brighton Cheerleaders jumping about, the low point was having to listen to Chris Waddle – the only geordie I know who pronounces “pace” as “pies” – still, he did used to work in a sausage factory so it may be some kind of obsession – but I digress.

First Half

We started quite brightly and had our first shot on goal inside 2 minutes, Gutierrez finding Santon down the left, who fired wide from distance. There was a bit of a scare after 7 minutes when Cabaye went down after a challenge from Bradcott. There didn’t seem to be much in it but he stayed down long enough for us to be worried. Chris Waddle said “I think he’s twisted his ankle” as the trainer clearly worked on Cabaye’s knee.

On 10 minutes Best had a great chance to put us in the lead. A long ball out of defence saw Best bring it down first time in the Brighton area surrounded by three defenders but he manged to turn and just skim the far post. Then he missed another one immediately after when Simpson put in a good cross which Ameobi headed back across the box to give Best a free header – he put it high over the bar.

The first Brighton raid came after quarter of an hour when Buckley burst into the box and crossed to Forster-Caskey, but a great clearance by Perch took it off his toes as he was shaping up to shoot. The Brighton crowd, who had been remarkably quiet for most of the game, briefly stirred.

The 20 minute point came and it was all Newcastle with Brighton hardly getting a sniff. After 25 minutes ESPN put up possession stats of 43% Brighton 57% United – I was left wondering when Brighton were supposed to have had this possession. They got their second attack after 28 when a mix up between Santon and Perch led to a shot which Krul saved well.

The game was largely being played in midfield however there was more excitement on 34 minutes when Hatem “mittens” Ben Arfa slipped the ball through to Simpson in the area but his shot was blocked. We were reminded of a particularly bad piece of United history when Waddle refused to utter the name “Trelford Mills” (younger Mags – look it up or ask an older fan!). The game reached half time with the polite Brighton crowd apparently still fast asleep. ESPN cut to shots of reporters tapping their stories into “laptopamabobs” – there was a bloke only using one finger, god only knows when that story will be ready! The cheerleaders jumped about a bit and caused more of a stir than either of the teams had in the first half.

Second Half

This half, United were attacking the South Stand where the 2,500 geordie faithful were housed. Brighton made their first change bringing Navarro on for Sparrow.

United continued to dominate and on 51 minutes Ameobi put Best clear in the box, but the keeper got a foot to his goalbound shot. A minute later, Ameobi turned in the box and hit a left foot shot which was cleared for a corner which came to nothing. After 56 minutes Simpson was booked for a sliding challenge, presumably because one of his feet was six inches off the ground. He cleanly won the ball but that doesn’t seem to count any more. If this goes on they’ll have ballerinas playing the game with beach balls – and make it a non-contact sport.

Shortly after the Simpson tackle some strange-looking bloke from the Brighton bench went over to square up to John Carver. When Carver stood up, he thought better of it and shouted at the fourth official instead.

The 60 minute mark came and went and the Toon were still cruising. There was a bit of excitement on 63 when the Brighton thug El-Habd clattered Cabaye, and the commentators started a lengthy discussion about whether Cabaye had “stamped” on him – which was a bit difficult as he was lying down at the time. Still, it’s their job to sensationalise the least thing eh?

On 64 Forster-Caskey went off to be replaced by Harley. I wrote in my notes “Perch is playing very well”. Did anybody else think that?

Disaster struck with 15 minutes of the game left. A rare Brighton attack saw Buckley run past Simpson who didn’t put his foot in – probably because of his earlier yellow card. Buckley proceeded down the left in a goalward direction, held off a challenge from Cabaye and hit a left foot shot which Krul had covered but which cruelly deflected off Williamson and into the net. To be honest, it was the only way Brighton were ever likely to score but it was totally against the run of play and bad luck for United. Brighton 1 Newcastle United 0

As usual when a goal goes in, Brighton started to get on top for the first time in the game. The silver-haired supremo decided to try plan B – this involved Guthrie, Santon and Ben Arfa leaving the field to be replaced by the dynamic trio of Gosling, Taylor and Ferguson. Didn’t make a ha’peth of difference.

On 89 minutes there was a clear handball in the box by Barnes. There was absolutely no doubt that it was intentional handball, this wasn’t one of those debatable ones, but incredibly the ref didn’t give the penalty. The game fizzled out, and we fizzled out of the Cup.

Nothing much else to say, really. Looking forward to reading what everybody else thought?

Teams, stats etc…

Brighton and Hove Albion (4-3-3): Peter Brezovan (G), Gordon Greer, Lewis Dunk, Adam El-Abd, Iñigo Calderón, Liam Bridcutt, Matt Sparrow (Alan Navarro 46), Will Buckley, Jake Forster-Caskey (Ryan Harley 64), Ashley Barnes, Craig Mackail-Smith.

Subs: Casper Ankergren, Romain Vincelot, Grant Hall, Alan Navarro, Ryan Harley, Will Hoskins, Torbjorn Agdestein.

Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Tim Krul(G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Davide Santon (Shane Ferguson 82); Danny Guthrie (Dan Gosling 82), Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa (Ryan Taylor 82), Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Shola Ameobi.

Substitutes: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Tamas Kadar, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Peter Lovenrkands.

Goals: Mike Williamson (OG 76)
Possession: Brighton 46%, Newcastle United 54%.
Attempts on target: Brighton 3, Newcastle United 10.
Attempts off target: Brighton 3, Newcastle United 4.
Corners: Brighton 4, Newcastle United 7.
Fouls: Brighton 3, Newcastle United 9.

Match highlights and post match interviews.

NUFCBlog Author: UTD111 UTD111 has written 59 articles on this blog.

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