Brighton (Away) - 1972

[Dave Clark Five]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7yrZUds3_A

[darren woolley]

I like to away kit smart.

[Witton Warrior]

This was the match where the entire town turned out to give Villa fans a special "welcome" as I recall?

[SarkGrime]

Was this the match when Jimmy Cumbes spent well over a minute taking a goal kick, putting on his gloves, taking them off, putting on his cap, taking it off, Rioch screaming at him to get on with it and finally the referee with no option other than to book him?

[Steve R]

I don't have fond memories of either of our games at Brighton in Div 3.

The only saving grace in the two defeats being that they helped manager Pat Saward avoid relegation in the first year and get promoted alongside us in the second.

That game was the first time I'd seen Chris Nicholl play. I can't remember what the crowd was, but it must have been their biggest for donkeys years.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I think Brighton got close on 30,000 for that game, it was rammed.
My memory was being in the ground ultra early while it was still empty, I was only 14 so pubs were still something to look forward to. We shouted up to Chico Hamilton in the seats who was taking a look out, and he gave us a wave while lighting up a cigarette.

[pooligan]

Got bad memories of this game. Hitched it on the Friday afternoon with my best mate and was on Brighton beach on the saturday morning in agony with blisters on my feet and feeling hungry and knackered when we bumped into the villa team taking a stroll along the sea front. Then we got into a bit of aggro with some of their mob outside the ground looking for villa fans and my friend suffered a broken nose and of course we lost the game.Only good thing to happen on the day was we managed to get back to brum on the villa special and never paid.Can anyone remember who got their goal,was it Peter Ward?

[Dave Clark Five]

Blagged it on the train from home and back. Kipped in waiting room at Banbury overnight on way to Shrewsbury away. Got welcomed with a cup of tea and a cake by the friendly station staff. 

[Pat McMahon]

Got bad memories of this game. Hitched it on the Friday afternoon with my best mate and was on Brighton beach on the saturday morning in agony with blisters on my feet and feeling hungry and knackered when we bumped into the villa team taking a stroll along the sea front. Then we got into a bit of aggro with some of their mob outside the ground looking for villa fans and my friend suffered a broken nose and of course we lost the game.Only good thing to happen on the day was we managed to get back to brum on the villa special and never paid.Can anyone remember who got their goal,was it Peter Ward?

Pooligan, I was a mere nipper at the time but I have memories of a bloke called Kit Napier scoring against us. I think he may have had a brother in the team too. Was this the Good Friday game - I ask because youtube is banned here so I can't access the link?

[pooligan]

Hi Pat i have sussed it out. I was getting mixed up with Brighton away 70-71 and 71-72. Yes the first game was on a good friday and we lost 1-0 with Willie Irvine scoring that goal. That was the only game i missed all season as i just could not afford it as belive it or not we had Shrewsbury away the next day and lost 2-1 and then Barnsley at home on the Monday night which we drew 0-0 .3 games in 4 days hard to belive in this day and age eh. Brighton did indeed have 2 Napiers,one was Chris Kit Napier and the other was John Napier,no idea  if they were related.Bit of a bogey side Brighton in the 3rd division as we only beat them once in 4 games drawing 0-0 and losing 2-1 in 71-72

[Flamingo Lane]

That was a cracking goal, move and finish.

[Steve R]

M memory of the good friday (first) game is of a chubby substitute coming on and scoring. I think his name was Duffy. Even the Brighton fans were taking the piss out of him when he first took to the pitch. There weren't that many Villa fans there by our standards of the day. I do recall a lot of Crystal Palace fans in the ground.

I'd travelled down by car with three mates, one a Baggies fan. We stopped off on the way and watched West Ham beat them 2-1 in a first division match. I have no idea why, but West Ham always seemed to have an early good friday fixture.

On the way home we managed to work out that it wasn't so bad, the expected victories against Shrewsbury and Barnsley would set us up for promotion at the first attempt.

The Shrewsbury game was a real sickener. Packed like sardines into their small ground only to see the writing put firmly on the wall.

Andy-Lochhead-I-T-A, in the second game I guess you were in the paddock in front of the main stand. I turned up just before kick off and ended up in the corner to the far left of you. I didn't get to see that much of the game, but despite the defeat it felt like a good match.