IT WILL be a huge relief for Brighton to know they are safe before facing Manchester City. Relegation fights are incredibly exhausting. Win, lose or draw you are waiting to find out the results of sides around you. Mental tiredness takes over and life on the pitch becomes difficult. Chris Hughton’s Seagulls drew 1-1 at […]
IT WILL be a huge relief for Brighton to know they are safe before facing Manchester City.
Relegation fights are incredibly exhausting.
Win, lose or draw you are waiting to find out the results of sides around you.
Mental tiredness takes over and life on the pitch becomes difficult.
Chris Hughton’s Seagulls drew 1-1 at Arsenal last week — a day after their safety was secured.
I don’t believe the saying “on the beach” — you don’t want to go on holidays on a sour note.
Obviously Brighton have had a quieter week of training but after such a tough few weeks they could play with freedom.
With Derby in May 2001 we were battling relegation.
Before our penultimate game at recently crowned champs Manchester United we were having breakfast at the hotel and our manager Jim Smith – one of the best I worked with – jumped up shouting: “That’s it, that’s it!”
He saw geese waddling across the lawn outside, declaring: “That’s how we’ll play. It’s fate!”
He changed our formation at Old Trafford for one of the most important games of our season — to match those geese.
The geese were in a loose 3-4-3 whereas we had been playing in a 3-5-2.
Georgi Kinkladze and Stefano Eranio, had to control the midfield despite not being famed defensively.
But a Malcolm Christie cracker won it to seal safety.
The next week we flew to Jersey for a testimonial match for one of the lads.
The plan had been to use it as a training base but it became a 72-hour session!
But despite most of us still half-cut we drew 1-1 in our last game v Ipswich.
So I can’t see Brighton aiming to do anything other than finish on a high.
