MDF Brighton v Luton Town 12/08/23

[shatter2]

The Glorious Twelfth will soon be here and we will be playing the Seagulls in our first game back in the top flight since the 191/92 season.
We've been doing some great transfer business and picking goal scorers in the Bobberman League will need some research!
So win, lose or draw let's look forward to a great season in the Premier League! COYH!

Albion Trivia.    In some ways Brighton have had a recent history not unlike our own.
Ground problems meant playing home matches 70 miles away at Gillinghams Priestfields Stadium for two years.
They also escaped the drop to Non League by a draw on the final day of the season.
Their new ground has seen them go from strength to strength and they are now a very successful Premier League side. Roll on Power Court our next big objective!

[bms]

Great to see the first Fred of the new season, thanks Shatter.
The enormity of both our achievement and the resulting challenge will become clear on Saturday, and all the subsequent match days of the season. Both old and new squad members will be out to prove the pundits wrong -such a blow to be without both Osho and Burke for the foreseeable future, Clark and Potts too.
Can we ‘do a Brighton’? Many of us will remember visiting the Withdean? Athletics stadium - European football looked a highly unlikely prospect for our hosts in those days.
After each of our previous promotions we have all expressed doubts and reservations about surviving in a higher league but results have always defied those fears- let’s hope it’s business as usual this season!
COY(Premier League)H!!!!!

[8two]

All time head to head Luton vs Brighton:

Luton won 23
Luton lost 24
Drawn 16

First game: 1920, Division 3 South, Won 3-2
Last game: 2009, Johnstones Paint; Won 1-1

Biggest win: 5-0, Division 1, 1982
Biggest loss: 5-2, Division 3 South, 1927

information from 11v11.com

[8two]

[bms]

This is a good summary of the game I saw
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66413648

Thought all our new players showed something positive against top quality opposition. Will get a clearer idea of what’s what after 8/9 games.

(Chelsea away next is a bit harsh coming in the back of that 😬)

[8two]

No criticism from me. Took many positives from it. First Premier League game and we were playing a very good team away from home.

If I were giving out any rosettes then Kaminski made some good stops, Kabore looks like he will be very good at both ends of the pitch and Brown looks like he'll be an asset.

[rutlandhatter]

My take is that 1) We need time to gel as a team 2) Pelly should only play 70 minutes because he tires 3) Our new goalkeeper is far better than Horvath. I've also watched Match of the Day and think we should be a bit kinder on Pelly's mistake as it was immediately preceded by a mistake from Lockyer who also gave away a penalty. The Match of the Day team said Luton were naïve and that just about sums it up.

[proudhattersince74]

There were definitely some positives to take away from a hard opening match. One concern for me was that a Brighton STH I know said they only hit 3rd gear twice in 90 minutes and rarely did anything but play in 2nd gear cruise control. If that is correct then we may be more out of touch than we thought!

Whilst I appreciate that it is early days, the starting midfield simply didn't look balanced. I couldn't quite make out whether Nakamba was supposed to be playing the defensive MF role as he appeared to be too far ahead of our defenders for most of the time we were defending - which was even more surprising as Andersen was making his debut and patently hadn't played alongside Lockyer and Bell so gaps and spaces were inevitable needed plugging.

We relied too heavily upon Chong and Pelly to help protect the flanks from deeper runs and to protect our two new wing backs. TBH, I didn't think Chong did a very good job of protecting Kabore and he had to cope with 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations because Chong didn't seem to recognise danger until it was too late. Clark (and Berry for that matter) have a nose for danger in its early stages.

Brighton's movement outfoxed us from the first minute. Their set pieces were inventive (Alan McCormack take note!) Their injection of pace was instantaneous - I think all of their players were faster than our starting outfielders so trying to win foot races was never in our favour. Their link up play embarrassed us on occasions because their first touch was always decisive, irrespective of how hard the ball at the recipient.

For away games against quality opposition, we need a lot more strength in MF - Chong has pace and is always looking for a pass and move to get the ball forward but I'm not sure that tackling is one of his stronger attributes. I don't know enough about Barkley to say whether he is the answer here but, from the players that I do know, Campbell may be a better option away from KR when we're going to get <35% possession and have to chase the ball.

This may not go down too well with some fans but I thought we looked far better when Brown brought both pace and movement to our forward line. He made the Brighton defenders have to think - whereas Adebayo tried his best, like he always does, but their defence had him in their pockets. Substitute Ogbene's speed was another noticeable change from the (pretty much) one paced game that we played.

All of that noted, Brighton are playing in Europe this season and will do what they did to us to many other and far better teams, especially at home. As I've noted previously, we need to try to rip points from the hands of any of the bottom 6-8 teams within our own mini-league. Anything from teams above those can be considered a bonus. First results that I looked for yesterday and, I suspect, will look for every week: Sheffield United, Everton, Forest, Bournemouth, West Ham and (not played yet) Wolves. Possibly chuck Palace and Fulham in there if they go on any bad runs (as happened last season at Palace).

Some rough seas ahead but twas ever thus - we take a while learning the new divisions. The only thing here is that there are fewer games in this division to get it right!


We are still the biggest little club in the world - COYH