by sussexpob » Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:05 am
I was 16 when Robbie Reinalt slotted home that equaliser against Hereford. The momentary silence as he went for the rebound, the thump of boot on foot, the distant sound of a ball hitting net, the roar and pandemonium that ensued. If Reinalt had hit post like Maskell had seconds before, we might have asked "who are Brighton and Hove Albion"......we wouldn't have probably existed now. Just like Hereford. It was a fight to the death, someone had to go. That time, we got lucky.
As a crazy mad football teen bred by an equally football mad father, I'll never forget that day. My dad was Sunderland through and through, but exiled in the south, he had to have live football. It's how we bonded. When Brighton were at home, we went there, when they were away we travelled together for Sunderland games.
The last week of April 1997 and the following week will always be the most memorable of my life. Sunderland got relegated while we watched the bittersweet tones of Brighton keeping themselves alive at the Goldstone ground by beating Doncaster 1-0. The last game at Goldstone, a place that for me is, and always will be, the spiritual home of the club...even though they turned it into a burger king.
I probably wasn't old enough to travel alone but the old man couldn't make it that day in Hereford. Sunderland hosted their last game at Roker that week, he needed to say his goodbyes.....in 7 days we both had to say farewell to the places we learned to love the beautiful game.
While the result went for us that day, it felt scant consolation. Any day you felt that the club would announce it no longer existed. The fans were angry,.the owners typically greedy and inept. We got docked points that year for crowd trouble. One game got called off as people threw fireworks at the directors box.
People in Brighton didn't give a toss. We were the drop out kids of the town, the hooligans, the weirdos. We didn't fit in with the organic coffee houses and liberal feel. We were homeless and unwanted.
The footballing community is owed a great debt by Brighton. I can remember selling badges to away fans before games to raise money, and people always bought....and they turned up in their droves in their own colours that day Brighton smashed Hartlepool 5-0 after a plea for Fans United to get fans in the gates to help save us. Guys wearing Chelsea and Palace shirts in Brighton enclosures chewing us on. It started the comeback from certain death to safety. Never let anyone tell you football pre-TV days was a dark place of violence.....it was a community too! Hell, I remember giving a tenner I could not afford at the time to help save Wrexham...alas, they weren't as lucky.
I'd hazard a guess very few people in the Amex last night recall that. Or campaigned for the right to build that stadium with their own time and energy. Or supported that team through a decade of relegation, no top half finishes and 4 consecutive 23rd place finishes.
And now, an exile myself, I can't claim to support Brighton like others do. I can't go to games, get involved, feel the same enthusiasm. Yet there is still a lot emotion, that all those years back it wasn't for nothing, that we kept the team alive, and now it flourishes!
We did it! I can't believe it really. Today I feel very homesick! No doubt I'm missing a hell of a party. It would have been nice to grow up in an era where football can united the town, than fight for its right to exist.....
But what ends well....I guess!
Up the Albion!
2010 French Open fantasy league guru 2010 Wimbledon fantasy league guru 2014 Masters golf fantasy guru 2015 Players Championship FL Guru 2016 Masters Golf Fantasy Guru
And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!