[frearsghost]

The away supporters are now housed at the opposite side of the ground, where previously, on my other three trips, there haven't been supporters only a hammer throwing net.

The view is as bad as ever and honestly, even though I have good eyesight it was difficult to make out what was happening. You expect to be this far from the pitch at Wembley, but for a league game the £22.50 entry charge (including park and ride) is a rip-off.

This was a strange and eerie experience and at times there was total silence in the ground, something I have never experienced. Town went ahead when Allot fed FOLAN and the big man slid the ball between the keeper's legs in a one-on-one. Last season he would have missed it but he's playing with a new found confidence.

It was though, a poor game between two ordinary sides on the day. Hurst flattered to deceive, failing to get in some good crosses, not making uses of the acres of space he had to beat a man and was justifiably, in my view, substituted in the 2nd half. The wide pitch was made for him today but he disappointed.

Town had the better of the first half but Brighton appeared stronger in the second half and equalised. They had never really threatened when a cross from the left beat every Chesterfield defender for the Brighton man to loop a header over Roache who was off his line (as the scorer later said on the radio.)

O'Hare was bought on to mark their very dangerous number 15 who was winning most of the headers at the back post and he did a good job marking him out of the game.

Brighton were in the ascendency and looked to be going on to win the game but too many of their passes were going astray and it was obvious they were low on confidence. However, Town being Town, we were fading and we scored just at the right time. NIVEN superbly tucked away a shot, low into the keeper's left hand corner to send the 50 or 60 travelling Spireites into raptures.

With minutes remaining Roache saved superbly from point blank range with what looked like a certain goal to win us the 3 points. There had been 4 minutes of injury time and right at the death Town had been keeping the ball by the corner flag. Brighton won a throw and Folan seemed to say something to the linesman. He immediately waved his flag vigorously to draw the attention of the ref who went over to him and heard what he had to say. The ref then gave Folan a red card (no yellow) - an oversight? so we don't really know if its a suspension for 1 or 3 games.

A good win and a great day out but Brighton need to move away from their athletics stadium if they want to move forward. I certainly wouldn't go every week if I was a Brighton fan. The view and atmosphere is shocking. Roy was on the Brighton radio after the game and refused to criticise the ground saying it was fantastic. Very diplomatic I thought.

Almost the best part of the day was when leaving the ground. The home team's dressing room - in a portakabin - was by the Town fans exit . The window was open and you could hear their new manager - Wilkins - cursing his players. Examples like:

you were effin crap

why didn't you go where I effin told you to go.

Some of us were putting our fingers to are lips saying shush so we could hear the rest but by now Town fans were singng and he heard us and shut up. Shame! but fantastic insight.

Lovely Jubbly! Have a good weekend.

[Denny]

Excellent Report FG,

Would have enjoyed the tab-hanging at the fuming manager

Cheers!

[CFC Forever]

Thanks for the report...... thought there'd be more than 50 spireites there like but well done to those that made it

[Westbars Spireite]

Cheers for that; I think though you did us a disservice though in term of support....apparently there were 133 of us there!

[CFC Forever]

did town score the winner in front of the town fans ? hope so !!!!




heres the away end !!!!

This post has been edited by CFC Forever: 30 September 2006 - 08:01 PM

[Westbars Spireite]

It's what could happen if we were forced to play at Queen's Park Annexe!

[frearsghost]

CFC Forever, on Sep 30 2006, 08:55 PM, said:

did town score the winner in front of the town fans ? hope so !!!!
heres the away end !!!!

Sorry I actually counted 40 at one time and forgot there was al iitle rush so 133 was perhaps more accurate.

Folan scored in front of the Town fans.

Roache was asking the linesman whether he should take a free-kick for offside and take it a couple of yards up from the six yard box. There was some confusion so he put it on the box for a goal kick. Then the ref waved the yellow at him from about 40 yards.

[Wiltshire Spireite]

CFC Forever, on Sep 30 2006, 08:55 PM, said:

did town score the winner in front of the town fans ? hope so !!!!
heres the away end !!!!

It should be called 'The Far Away End' !!!

[spirette]

lol I was going to go today but after talking to someone they told me you're really far away from the pitch as their was a running track going round the edge of the pitch. Then the price seemed a lot for a rubbish view!

Excellent win though!

[TB.CFC]

steward told me there was 172 away fans more than it looked but hey, good performance overall, anyone else listen to ther ehalf time team talk? lol cant repeat alot of it and at the end was funny too.

[Bankrobber]

spireiteblue, on Sep 30 2006, 11:07 PM, said:

Just imagine scoring at the other end,£22.50 they should be kicked out of the league robbing sods

To be fair to Brighton, the ticket price whilst high did include the cost for public transport to and from the ground, and the service it provided was excellent.

I've took a couple of photos of the view we were afforded, i'll try and get them up somewhere.

And FG is totally spot on - the atmosphere today was frankly weird at times. There were several sustained periods of library like silence. I never heard anything from the Brighton fans except a group of about 20 lads at one side of the stand nearest us who occasionally chirped up.

Not a great performance by the lads today by any means, but we got the points. Well done.

[Bankrobber]

spireiteblue, on Oct 1 2006, 12:20 AM, said:

Too be fair to Brighton my foot,the coach fare to Brighton included getting to the ground or did they stop the coach and make everyone catch a park and ride bus ?

I don't know. I did not go on the supporters coach.

And yes, i am being fair to Brighton. I said the ticket price is still high irrespective of the fact it includes your travel to the ground. I am merely pointing out that you do get slightly more than the usual for your money; however as usual you completely miss the point.

Anyway, here's some photos . Well, one anyway...

This post has been edited by Bankrobber: 30 September 2006 - 11:57 PM

[lubic]

Well it was my first time at the Withdean and, without a shadow of a doubt, it's the worst 'football' ground I've ever had the misfortune to visit.

[mr. smith]

Paul, on Oct 1 2006, 09:17 AM, said:

Well it was my first time at the Withdean and, without a shadow of a doubt, it's the worst 'football' ground I've ever had the misfortune to visit.

horrible ground for horrible people.

[TB.CFC]

Sb i went on bus and they took us straight too ground, we didnt use park and ride.

[Mr Mercury]

Paul, on Oct 1 2006, 11:17 AM, said:

Well it was my first time at the Withdean and, without a shadow of a doubt, it's the worst 'football' ground I've ever had the misfortune to visit.

The worse for me was the infamous Donny CAGE of the late 80`s.

Mr Mercury

[mr. smith]

Mr Mercury, on Oct 1 2006, 11:02 AM, said:

The worse for me was the infamous Donny CAGE of the late 80`s.

Mr Mercury

in the bad old 80s lots of grounds were bad. donnys being a particularly bad one.
in the present(ish) days brightons is by far the worse ground ive been to, but its no more than they deserve.