Always The Bridesmaid, Never The Bride - Brighton & Hove Albion

[Sam91]

December 2017

Results

Solid win after 3 games without one. Kayal and Bamford with 2 goals close together. Swansea never threatened.

We absolutely dominated them but just couldn't score sadly!! Still 1 point closer to that 40 point target.

A real back and forth tie which could have gone either way in truth. Shame we lost but thats football sometimes.

We went and tried to fight fire with fire and play proper football against them and ultimately got put to the sword.. still it was a back and forth first half until Duffy gave away a penalty.

After 3 matches without a goal I was getting worried, but none now. Huge win here over a big club like Liverpool who may be struggling this year but still have a very good team.

Fuming... throwing away 3 points like that with 3 minutes left.. unacceptable.

Great win over a team who have been swapping positions with us for most of the season so far.


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Player of the Month

Tom Ince

Easy choice. No-one else has been to great but Ince's goals in the past few games have been vital.


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Table

Still riding high in 6th!! Still scored the most goals but we leak so many as well. Defence needs improving massively especially at the full back spots.​

 

[Sam91]

January 2018

Transfers


Outs

Most notable loss is Baldock. His contract is up in the summer and I wasn't gonna renew it. He's just not BPL quality and I was happy to let him leave. Solly March also left, he's again not the kind of player who is gonna take us to the next level and I needed the funds to get one of my signings.



Ins

Wilson came back in on loan after Bamford got injured and Baldock left. Dario Vizinger is a young striker who I hope will develop well. Nat Chalobah came in for a tiny fee!! He's gonna be my new DM half back and fits the role well. Young and English too.

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Results

Solid win here, good to see Bamford net. Easy enough game.

Totally unacceptable.. I rested some key players but we still should have won. Just league games left now for us this season.

So close to a big win over a huge club.. yes Chelsea have struggled this season but they still have a crazy team. Still we played very well.

What a win!!! Spurs were top when we played against them. Great win.

Bournemouth have struggled. We piled on the misery with a Wilson brace, it could have been even worse for them truthfully.

City were leaders by the time we played them on deadline day, we gave them a really good match but sadly an Otamendi goal from a corner won it for them.


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Player of the Month


Lewis Dunk

Mr. Consistent has been a rock all season and been brilliant this month.



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Table

End of January and we're sitting in 5th... better than I could have ever imagined. Safe to say we wont be in a relegation battle this season. Hoping for top half right now.​

 

[Sam91]

February 2018

Results

We started well... ended well... but everything in between was shocking. Simply put not good enough, we need to hold on if we take a lead and not put our foot off the peddle.

Will Hughes was different gravy here. 2 goals and an assist. Great win here.

A real back and forth battle here against a struggling West Brom. But a late Tom Ince goal won it for us after good work from Bjordal out wide on the right.


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Player of the Month


Will Hughes

Great month from Hughes. Wins it after that stunning performance against The Toon. I need to renew his contract and get rid of that release clause he insisted on of £17m to any club in the Champions League.


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Table

Still fifth..... no hope of top 4 but I'm hoping we can cling on and maybe get Europa League maybe next year?​

 

[Sam91]

March 2018

Results

Cracking win and a good attacking display. After we scored the 4th I chucked on some young players. Solid performance.

After we lost the last A23 Derby I was determined to win this one. But Palace were a stern test yet a Tom Ince goal just before half time helped us take the 3 points.

Although we're 5th we are still a long way from being a top BPL side. Arsenal were too much here.



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Player of the Month


Lewis Cook

Great month from the young English centre midfielder. Goal against Watford and another commanding game against Palace.


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Table

Spurs pretty much Champions amazingly. Hoping for a top 5 spot now but we have some tricky ties to come still.​

 

[Klippybo]

Great work so far but I hope they get beat on Tuesday night in real life!

 

[Sam91]

Great work so far but I hope they get beat on Tuesday night in real life!

Cheers mate unreal how well we've done this season. Need new full backs badly though. Haha big game that, hopefully the Seagulls can win though! Be good to see one of my local teams in the top league

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[Sam91]

April 2018

Results

Two goals from Vaclav Cerny got us a comeback win away from home against The Swans. Solid 3 points.

Awesome win over Leicester who are deep in the relegation zone amazingly... James Wilson was different class.

I thought this game was over after 8 minutes, how wrong was I?! Stoke fighting against relegation rallied as we needed just 1 more win to secure a top 6 finish. I thought we were gonna have to settle for a draw when Imbula equalised but Tom Ince, so many times our saviour this season, grabbed us the win and goal he deserved after notching 2 assists already this game. Europe here we come!!

Close match against second place United, only thing that separated us was a moment of class from Paul Pogba.


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Player of the Month


Vaclav Cerny

Won the BPL Young Player of the Month notching 3 goals in 4 games.


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Table

And there we are. Top 6 confirmed and Brighton will be playing European football next year!! Hoping for an easy draw in the qualifiers just so we can make the group stages! Leicester are in real trouble. Watford are already down and Spurs win the title!!!​

 

[Sam91]

May 2018 & End of Season Awards

Results

A win here!! We play Liverpool in our last league game too so a win would be great to move us into fifth above them.

FFS... haha!! We actually played well but they finished their chances and we didn't. Its that simple.


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Final League Table

Leicester and Bournemouth relegated with Watford. West Brom pulled off a ridiculous recovery. Spurs win the league 10 points clear of everyone else. Wolves and Burnley will join us next season along with whoever wins the Play Offs.


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Awards


BPL TOTY

Will Hughes makes TOTY!!!! New contract desperately needed.



Brighton Awards

James Wilson the real standout. Personally I think Tom Ince deserved POTY and James Wilson YPOTY.



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Squad

James Wilson's second loan spell here was much better. Tom Ince and Will Hughes also had superb seasons. Knockaert done well but spent way too long injured and ultimately lost his starting spot to Vaclav Cerny. Dunk and Duffy both averaged over 7's which is great. I really need new full backs though and that will be my main aim. Also maybe a couple of high potential stars.​

 

[Andyplatt]

Great story, and what a great season! Enjoying reading through this one.
Hope Brighton beat Newcastle tonight as well! I'm a Leeds fan

 

[naterr]

Awesome finish! that is some tactic haha!

 

[Sam91]

Awesome finish! that is some tactic haha!

Cheers mate, big shout out to Darren on FM Story for it!

Great story, and what a great season! Enjoying reading through this one.
Hope Brighton beat Newcastle tonight as well! I'm a Leeds fan

Cheers bud glad you're enjoying it!! Big news coming in a sec too. Haha yeah me too looking forward to watching the game. Tipping a 2-1 win for the Seagulls. Baldock with both

 

[Sam91]

New England Manager??

News has filtered through today England have offered Brighton manager Mr Birch the job of England manager. This comes after Gareth Southgate was sacked after an awful World Cup in which England won just 1 match beating Canada 1-0 and then losing to Argentina and Senegal 4-0 seeing them knocked out in the group stage.


Mr. Birch is yet to accept as he's debating whether taking on the additional duties of being the national team manager would affect his work at the AMEX Stadium after Brighton finished in a record high 6th place meaning they'll be in the Europa League next season.

 

[Sam91]

August 2018 and Summer Transfers

Transfers


Outs

That's my only outgoing player.. Knockaert. Too many injuries last season saw him be displaced by Vaclav Cerny.



Ins

Said I was gonna focus on the full backs and boy did I. In came Andy Robertson, Sam Byram and young Ryan Sessegnon. Sanabria is a 22 year old striker and will be our new lead man. Kenedy comes in on loan as does Pinamonti, a young striker.

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Results

Easy win here. Good to see Sanabria net twice on his debut.

Very straight forward. One more qualifying round then if we get through that the group stages!!

A late Kayal goal gets us 3 points over a team who beat us 4-1 last season here. We dominated them and deserved the win too.

Think thats us secured a place in the groups..

We absolutely battered them but somehow couldn't score. Shame but at least we didn't lose!!

Rested our big players. Young Pinamonti nets another 2 goals, good to see!


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Player of the Month


Antonio Sanabria

4 games 4 goals. Solid start from the lad.


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BPL Transfers

As you can see some huge deals happened!! KDB went to PSG for a new world record fee. Lukaku moved to United. Costa went back to Atletico. But City forking out a potential £88m for Fabinho takes the absolute biscuit....



Also I took the England job ​

 

[dani3w]

Very good work last season to earn a Europa League spot and well done on getting into the group stages Sam! Keep it up

 

[Sam91]

Very good work last season to earn a Europa League spot and well done on getting into the group stages Sam! Keep it up

Cheers mate. Looking forward to taking Brighton into Europe. Our groups pretty tough though.. will be posted in next months update

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[Sam91]

September 2018

Results

Ahhh what could have been... we raced into a 3-0 lead but choked it and collapsed. To be honest Chelsea should have won though. They absolutely battered us and if it wasn't for Rajkovic in net we would have lost 6-3.

Bit more like it. The scoreline flatters them, Vardy scored a screamer late on but we should have scored more.

Fantastic start to life in the Europa League. The other two teams we pulled were Inter and Sporting, two big clubs so its key we beat Grasshoppers to put some points of the board and give us a chance with sneaking second place hopefully.

Solid win here. Leeds are struggling this season and have been the whipping boys so was glad to rest a few players and score a big win.

Jesus.... I don't get it. Okay I fielded a slightly weakened side but how we lost 5-0 I don't know. I don't mind crashing out of the League Cup but no-one likes losing 5-0.

WHAT A WIN!!! Just what we needed after that thrashing. A great win over one of the big guns in the league. They're a decent side, Icardi tore us to shreds last season but we kept him nice and quiet this time. Kenedy scored a lovely late winner and we held on.


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Player of the Month


Vaclav Cerny

Quickly becoming our talisman. Honestly feel like I can rely on him to produce that bit of magic which can bail us out of a tight spot. Won BPL YPOTM this month too.


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Tables

Aiming for a top half finish this season what with Europe to juggle and a relatively small squad. But we've made a cracking start and getting a draw over Chelsea(we could have won) and beating Arsenal has given us some real confidence.

Inter and Sporting take points off each other means we lead the way. Sporting have actually had some of their star players nicked off them by the likes of Chelsea so I'm hoping if we can grab a win over them we can take second and progress out of this group.


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England


Results

Friendly win over a strong Belgium side and a big win over Italy in the European International League(WTF IS THAT?!). Replaced Henderson as captain with Kane, Stone became our deputy. I don't rate Henderson and feel England have better, younger players. Here are the two line ups for the fixtures:

So in the Belgium friendly I have some debuts out to Ben Gibson, Lascelles, Lewis Cook, Gray, and Jordan Pickford.

Here was the line up for my first competitive game. Dat Guy Welbz netting a hat-trick and Luke Shaw getting his first goal for England. Rested the two Brighton lads but normally I'd start Hughes over JWP.​

 

[Sam91]

October 2018

Results

Before the match I would have taken a draw no doubt. But once again we throw away a lead.. frustrating but still a good result.

What a win this was.. after getting smashed by them in the EFL Cup to win like this at home in the league was superb.

What is it with us throwing away leads... very frustrating to do this in the Derby too. Seems to be when we're playing away from home too...

So nearly a win that pretty much would have secured us passage to the next round.. once again I would have taken this before hand but another lead we've thrown away.

Vaclav Cerny... what a baller. He's truly becoming one of the league's best player. 20 minute hat-trick and could have had more.



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Player of the Month


Lewis Dunk

Dunk the rock. Keep thinking about replacing my centre backs but him and Duffy are so consistent.


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Tables

We've made a fantastic start, can we keep it up? Chelsea, United and Arsenal for all the money they've spent are struggling so far.

A win over Grasshoppers should see us progress! Take into account our games against Sporting and Inter are at home we should get something there too.


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England

Will Hughes gets his first England goal, as does Gray. Harry Kane is just a machine too.

Italy are ''relegated'' whatever that means. A win against Russia in November will see us progress.
​

 

[Sam91]

November 2018

Results

Always nice to get a clean sheet, Sam Byram called all sorts of problems for them down the right against his old side. Vaclav Cerny netting yet again.

And this win secures we qualify out of our group!! Might have been a bit tighter if Adrien Silva hadn't been sent off. Kenedy with a fantastic brace and he's proving to be a great addition so far in on loan.

How many more leads are we going to throw away? This time in the last 7 minutes for crying out loud!!

Battered them but just couldn't finish today. Consecutive draws in the league in games we should have won.

Game was dead after 13 minutes and secures us top spot thanks to our better head to head record against Sporting which is good and should hopefully get us a decent draw in the next round.



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Player of the Month


Kenedy

Been fantastic since he joined. 9 goals in 18 games along with 6 assists is awesome.



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Tables

Fallen off the pace slightly but still undefeated! Too many draws costing us though. Still hopeful of a successful season though, top half and maybe a trophy would be great.



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England


Results

Another 2 wins. Means we progress in this International League thing. Here's the table:

Only conceded the one goal. Not sure what happens now but I'm guessing we go into a knockout sorta stage.
​

 

[dani3w]

Great work qualifying from your group stage mate and still maintaining a strong league position too

 

[Sloken]

Really like this one mate.
One question, havr you been playing with the same tactic all seasons?

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