Pre-match Preview – Brighton

Monday 20th November 2017 – Brighton and Hove Albion v Stoke City.

Since gaining promotion from the Championship last season Brighton will be delighted with their start to life in the Premier League. They currently sit in 8th position having amassed 15 points from their first 11 fixtures. Their gaffer Chris Hughton is clearly doing a great job as they look to add to their current 4 game unbeaten run.

A player to watch is a 34 year old centre forward called Glenn Murray who has netted 4 times in the last 3 games – his last coming in a 1-0 away victory at Swansea. Having watched Brighton destroy West Ham recently (on Sky) at the Olympic Stadium, they appear very well organised defensively and are clearly grafting hard as a team. We will certainly need to be on our game if we are to come away with a positive result.

Brighton moved into their brand spanking new Amex Stadium in 2011 after a period of temporary homes since leaving the old Goldstone Ground in 1997.  They firstly shared with Gillingham before spending some time at the Withdean Stadium, the latter being an Athletics ground located on an outer suburb of Brighton. Having mentioned the Goldstone Ground who is old enough to remember Steve Foley bagging that dramatic late 90th minute equaliser in the driving rain back in January 1992? A crowd of 8622 saw Stoke salvage a 2-2 draw which enabled us to establish a 25 game unbeaten run – a record that still stands to this day. I remember going arse over tit as Stigger smashed the ball home sending the drenched Stokies wild. Sorry Ive lost myself here, let me get back to the pre-match blog !

The new Annex has a capacity of 30,278 and will of course be a new ground for many travelling Stoke fans as we have not played there before. I suspect a few less than it might have been had the game not been chosen for Monday night Sky Sports coverage. Far from ideal for those Stokies who are back in work the following morning ! As you can imagine from a modern stadium, the facilities are very good with padded seats and extra leg room proving very popular with both home and away supporters. Away supporters are located in both the East and South Stand lower tiers, the typical away allocation is 3,300 tickets.

For those who need an address for your sat navs, here it is :

American Express Community Stadium
Village Way
Brighton
BN1 9BL

The stadium is located in the Village of Falmer nearly 6 miles north from the sea front and the famous Brighton Palace Pier.

For those travelling by train, the closest station is Falmer which is situated right outside of the Stadium itself. Most Stokies will travel into Brighton Central, from which four trains run every hour to nearby Falmer. We have been reliably informed that the queues for the train (from Brighton to Falmer) can on occasions lead to a long wait so the other option is to take the number 23 bus to the stadium itself.

I am confident we can take points from Brighton. Four points from our previous two fixtures have left me feeling a little more positive. The name Xherdan Shaqiri maybe very different to those names back in 1992, your Steven Foley’s et al, but the famous red and white stripes remain the same to us all. Our last competitive fixture against the Seagulls was a 3-0 victory in the FA Cup (at the the then Britannia Stadium) back in 2011. A scruffy 0-1 will suffice on Monday night.

Go and get us all a result please Potters, we will of course be with you.

Written by Locko – @countydog