Brighton & Hove Albion (Home) 18.04.2026

With the side set up as a 4-3-3, the intent was there to be attacking, but also to solidify the midfield with Bissouma and Bentancur preferred to Gray and Bergvall.  There was a surprise to see Maddison on the bench, but this was surely only a morale booster rather than him being a viable option, having had no game time for months.  The other surprise was the absence of Pape Matar Sarr, who hadn’t been mentioned as a doubt and wasn’t mentioned at all on the club’s website with regard to him missing out. 

The crowd had been whipped up and the backing for the team was good today, with “All Together – Always” banners replacing “Time For Change” scarves, although we needed to change our current trajectory.  Flags waved and unlike 11 months ago, this time they were not celebrating anything, just trying to generate an atmosphere to get behind a team struggling to avoid the drop.  A rapid fall from grace, but one that had to be addressed now, although it should have been done much earlier.   Would Levy have acted sooner rather than later as opposed to the shambles who are in charge now ? 

Spurs were quickly on  the attack even though Brighton kicked off the first half.  Pedro Porro played a long diagonal for Destiny Udogie, with Verbruggen having to race out to get there first, then after ten minutes we got a free-kick on the left and it resulted in a neat ball inside Minteh for Udogie, who was put on the turf by the Brighton winger, but the referee didn’t want to know.  With 23 minutes on the clock, the irritating Gomez went down, having attempted to foul Destiny and needed lengthy treatment before limped off.  Unfortunately for Tottenham, it brought Mitoma onto the pitch and that time to be added on.

When play continued, Porro’s corner was cleared to Xavi Simons, whose shot was deflected wide of the goal and then the resulting corner was swung over the top by Randal Kolo Muani after Conor Gallagher’s overhead kick was blocked.  Spurs were looking to go long to find runners from halfway and Porro’s ball down the right was picked out by Gallagher, who got into the box, but couldn’t get a shot away although he won a corner.  As often happens it is easier for the ref to give a free-kick tot he defending side when a corner comes in, so there wasn’t the opportunity to make anything from it.  A long cross from Minteh on the right was headed back towards goal from the far post by Hinshelwood, but the ball was played against the post by Micky van de Ven, getting there before Welbeck.  The ball bounced back off Micky’s arse across the face of goal before Kevin Danso smashed it off a Brighton player for a goal-kick.  

As Ayari broke into the Spurs half, Bissouma was chasing him and the Brighton player went to ground.  From the side of the pitch it didn’t look like Biss made a challenge, but just a coming together of legs as Ayari cut across the Spurs midfielder.  I think they call that initiating contact.  A free-kick fair enough, but a booking was a bit unnecessary and surely this was a case of Yves’ reputation going before him, but then he was walking the tightrope for the remaining 55 minutes.  After two fouls from behind by Wieffer and Ayari in the first fifteen minutes, it seemed an extremely soft yellow as there was not a great rick of injuring an opponent, whereas weren’t tackles from behind supposed to be a booking ?  Or does that only apply if you are wearing a white shirt.  From the free-kick, Welbeck had a free header at the near post, but it was within Kinsky’s reach and he got down behind it well.

Wieffer eventually got booked for shoving over Simons, but if that was a booking, then Brighton should have had about five more players shown yellow cards.   Then Wieffer threw himself in front of Simons, as Xavi looked to go past him to “win” a free-kick.  It is incredibly galling that referees don’t understand the game and how players look to influence them … and they fall for it.  Anyway, when Spurs succeeded in pressing van Hecke in his own corner on their right wing, Conor played the ball to Rodrigo Bentancur, who moved the ball on to Xavi, who played Don in the box on our left.  He returned the ball for Xavi to play a fine cross to the edge of the six yard box, where Porro made a good run behind Kadiogolou to beat Verbruggen to the ball and head into the unguarded net. 

A minute later, it could have been 2-0.  Solanke received a throw-in just inside his own half, turned Wieffer, went between van Hecke and Gross down the left and played a well-weighted pass behind Boscogli to find Xavi in the box.  He controlled the ball, let Kadiogolou run past him and curled a shot wide of the keeper that hit the foot of the far post to bounce out behind Kolo Muani.  It ran to Pedro, who drilled a shot at goal that Verbruggen managed to recover to tip over the bar.  When the corner was played into the middle of the goal, the keeper punched the ball away and Xavi recovered it at the far side of the box, but Mitoma ran over and knocked him down.  A free-kick and judging by the yellow flashed at Bissouma, surely a booking for the Brighton winger ?  The answer was no to either.  Inept refereeing once more in a season of all-time refereeing lows.

A ball forward to Solanke saw van Hecke catch Dom’s shoulder on his chin, so he went down holding the top of his head.  Result ?  A free-kick to Brighton and a talking to for Dominic for an accident, mainly of van Hecke’s making as he was on the way down before the ball arrived.  van de Ven turned Gross close to the West Stand touchline and raced away from him despite the German holding his arm all the way, then when Dom was kicked late by van Hecke the advantage was lost and no foul was given.  It was hard to comprehend which game the officials were watching.  Spurs had been allowing Kadioglou and Mitoma to come in behind them on their left wing and when Gross swung a long cross over from the right, Mitoma fired in a technically brilliant volley into the near top corner.  Toni didn’t really stand a chance, as you wouldn’t have expected the shot to go where it ended up, but nine times out of ten, it would have flown into the crowd or off the other side of the pitch for a throw-in. 

Right on half-time, Hinshelwood met left wing cross with a near post header that flashed wide and the 45+ minutes just went to prove that we are fated.

At the start of the second half, after an interval interview with Chris Hughton, the game was a couple of minutes old when Danso cleared a low ball into the box and was clattered late by Welbeck, but no free-kick was given.  From the resulting throw, two shots were fired in on goal and Gallagher and Danso blocked them with chants of “Handball” going up from the away end, but neither had any chance of getting a penalty.  Mitoma thinks Bentacur fouled him, so grabs the ball while on the floor.  Free-kick to Spurs for handball, but nothing else.  Having watched the Scottish Cup semi-final earlier in the day, former Spurs midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe did the same thing and got a yellow card, so even Scottish refs know the game better than Attwell.

Porro’s curled ball forward looked as though it was running through to the keeper, but Solanke chased it down and almost knocked it over Verbruggen, who just managed to recover the ball in the air.  Then, further evidence of our lack of luck came in the 58th minute, when Conor closed the keeper down and blocked his clearance with the ball going wide of the goal.  A ball played up to Udogie on the left, saw him turn away from Ayari, who went down holding his face, when it wasn’t even a hand-off, but it was given as a free-kick to the Seagulls anyway.  van Hecke goes through the back of Solanke without a hope of wining the ball and gets just a talking to, while Bissouma got booked for less.  

Bentancur was substituted in the 67th minute, with Palhinha replacing Rodrigo who had made a big difference to our play.  Joao almost made an immediate impact, with Xavi being played into the left side of the box, with his shot being blocked but running out to Palhinha.  He measured his shot that came off Welbeck and hit Verbruggen and went away.  Last week a deflected shot flies past Kinsky, this week it hits the opposition keeper. 

Lucas Bergvall came off the bench in the 76th minute, with De Zerbi taking Conor Gallagher off while Djed Spence replaced Destiny Udogie.  It was an inspired substitution, as when play restarted with a Brighton goal-kick, Verbruggen played it to van Hecke, who wasn’t aware that Lucas’ first touch was to close from behind and take the ball off him cleanly.  He knocked it forward to SImons, who came inside two defenders and curled it, Sonny-like, wide of the keeper and into the net off the far post to spark huge celebrations with the bench racing down the touchline to join in.  Of course there was a yellow card for Xavi who flung his shirt off, but you just hoped that the team could keep their heads amid the euphoria.

There was still about 20 minutes plus added time to play, so they still have to be vigilant.  Minteh’s cross ended with Toni punching the ball away as Koustoulos went in with his boot raised and was fortunate to not catch the Spurs keeper and then Simons went down with cramp that was so bad that he could hardly walk and having used all five subs, he could not be replaced.  He even tried to clear a loose ball on the edge of the Tottenham box, but fell to the floor as he couldn’t even stand on his affected leg and was spinning around like a dying fly.  Needing treatment, he had to go off for the regulated 30 seconds, as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes and then the fourth official held up eight more to play.  Spurs were sitting deep and carrying Xavi, a long cross from the left gave Kadioglou a chance, unmarked at the far post, but he side-footed his volley into the side-netting.  

While Spence was closing in on a ball running through to Verbruggen, the keeper cleared upfield and it ran through to Minteh to put a low ball into the near post from the left.  Danso cut it out, but his touch was heavy and van Hecke nicked it off him, as Bergvall did to him, then paid it back for Rutter to shoot high into the net from 13 yards out to silence the Spurs crowd.  Four minutes into added time and the day had turned sour.

Battling for the ball after it took ages for us to take a throw, Xavi played the ball to Archie Gray inside the box, but his low shot lack conviction and it was the last action of the disappointing match.  A much improved performance, but still not the elusive win that we were seeking.  We are now more or less reliant on other results and have to win nearly all our remaining matches to have any hope of staying up.

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