A Seagull Eye's View

[Holmowl]

All the best mate. Great post. Clearly a proper fan.

[newbster]

That's what's I call dignified in defeat and fair play to you.great post

[bigrbuk]

Well played Deeeek, you and your team. Good luck next year, unless we play you ;)

Edited May 18, 2016 by bigrbuk

[theowlsman]

Welcome back any time. We also hope we go up.

Here's hoping your pain goes away quickly, and that you make amends for this season's disappointment, by gaining that promotion you deserved this season, next season.

Good luck.

[F. Spiksley]

Good OP. Respect due.

Good OP. Respect due.

Good OP. Respect due.

[East Yorks Owl]

Evening all.

I've never signed up to another club's forum before so this is a first for me. Part of it is therapy. I'm still struggling to process the end of the season and just want to air it all. The trouble is that most people I know don't give a damn. It's only on a forum, even a rival's forum, that people really "get" it.

I started following Brighton in the early 80s during the good times. I was eight when my Dad took me to my first match. It was a 0-0 draw with Stoke. God knows why I ever went back! My point here is that I only had the briefest of times watching us in the top flight before we reverted back to our historical role of being not at all good. I've seen a few of you on here complaining how unlucky you've been for a decade or two. Well I've been waiting 33 years to get back to the big time now and thanks to your boys I can add at least another year to that.

Today has genuinely hurt. Around every half an hour my mind has drifted back to last night and I get a fresh slug of sadness right in the gut. A season as good as ours simply shouldn't hurt that much. However, I am also glad I was at the match. It was an amazing experience: the kind of night you'll be glad to say you were there for in years to come.

We WERE unlucky in many respects. Decisions and injuries did go against us for the last few fixtures. I will admit that we bottled the Derby game though and that cost us in the end. Had we found a way to win that we could have afforded a draw at Boro' and then who knows?

Anyway, why am I here? Apart from the therapy bit, I wanted to pop by and applaud you and your team. I wasn't at the Hillsborough game but the TV made it pretty clear that your support was phenomenal. At The Amex you turned up in force and made yourselves heard. While I could barely bring myself to look at you all partying at the end I have to acknowledge that your end looked like a very fun place to be. As for your team, quite a few I our message boards would have you believe your win was purely down to luck. That's obviously wishful thinking. Your boys did a thorough, professional job on us. The home leg could have been won by more. We made you sweat out the first half last night but your second half was monumental. Your boys shut down every last inch of space. We got urgent, then careless, then rattled and made almost nothing. I kept waiting for you to break out with pace and grab the winner but at least that never came. I've no complaints. None against you anyway.

You've had long enough in the wilderness to have earned this shot at the top flight. I was always impressed/amazed with the numbers that turned up to cheer you on when you were in the third tier. That speaks volumes for what you are and could be in the future and I've got to admire it. For what it's worth, I hope you do it. All year long we have been the underdog. The fact that we've fallen short pains me but the underdog mantle passes to you for the playoff final. Hope it fits you.

I may never post on here again but I felt I needed to get that little lot off my chest.

Best of luck.

Quality post Deeek - far too good for this forum!

[latemodelchild]

I still haven't watched the game again. Watched the first leg again at 8.30 Saturday morning. That's how horrible the game was and we won. I've still got no idea how we did it and have the utmost respect for Brighton for giving it a go. That 1st half was unlike anything I've ever witnessed. I was actually hoping we'd win purely because the final would start at 0-0 and we wouldn't have to experience that again.

I've not seen much moaning and complaining from Brighton fans, quite the opposite from the guys who've found their way onto here. Heard some odd stuff from talksport but meh, it changes nowt so why worry?

Over the 2 legs we took our chances. The tie was won in the first leg, injuries may have played a part but don't discount the part our crowd played. Brighton didn't look as up for it as us. Probably the disappointment of missing auto coupled with a fervent atmosphere did for them. It's football.

Best of luck next season. Thanks for your post on here.

[Notts Owl]

Evening all.

I've never signed up to another club's forum before so this is a first for me. Part of it is therapy. I'm still struggling to process the end of the season and just want to air it all. The trouble is that most people I know don't give a damn. It's only on a forum, even a rival's forum, that people really "get" it.

I started following Brighton in the early 80s during the good times. I was eight when my Dad took me to my first match. It was a 0-0 draw with Stoke. God knows why I ever went back! My point here is that I only had the briefest of times watching us in the top flight before we reverted back to our historical role of being not at all good. I've seen a few of you on here complaining how unlucky you've been for a decade or two. Well I've been waiting 33 years to get back to the big time now and thanks to your boys I can add at least another year to that.

Today has genuinely hurt. Around every half an hour my mind has drifted back to last night and I get a fresh slug of sadness right in the gut. A season as good as ours simply shouldn't hurt that much. However, I am also glad I was at the match. It was an amazing experience: the kind of night you'll be glad to say you were there for in years to come.

We WERE unlucky in many respects. Decisions and injuries did go against us for the last few fixtures. I will admit that we bottled the Derby game though and that cost us in the end. Had we found a way to win that we could have afforded a draw at Boro' and then who knows?

Anyway, why am I here? Apart from the therapy bit, I wanted to pop by and applaud you and your team. I wasn't at the Hillsborough game but the TV made it pretty clear that your support was phenomenal. At The Amex you turned up in force and made yourselves heard. While I could barely bring myself to look at you all partying at the end I have to acknowledge that your end looked like a very fun place to be. As for your team, quite a few I our message boards would have you believe your win was purely down to luck. That's obviously wishful thinking. Your boys did a thorough, professional job on us. The home leg could have been won by more. We made you sweat out the first half last night but your second half was monumental. Your boys shut down every last inch of space. We got urgent, then careless, then rattled and made almost nothing. I kept waiting for you to break out with pace and grab the winner but at least that never came. I've no complaints. None against you anyway.

You've had long enough in the wilderness to have earned this shot at the top flight. I was always impressed/amazed with the numbers that turned up to cheer you on when you were in the third tier. That speaks volumes for what you are and could be in the future and I've got to admire it. For what it's worth, I hope you do it. All year long we have been the underdog. The fact that we've fallen short pains me but the underdog mantle passes to you for the playoff final. Hope it fits you.

I may never post on here again but I felt I needed to get that little lot off my chest.

Best of luck.

Thank you for that, respect for your wishes and your honest (now the dust has settled) assessment. I hope we can win at Wembley but if not, hey we get to battle it out again next season. Good luck to all of us next season where ever we may be plying our trade.

[fatzooma]

Evening all.

I've never signed up to another club's forum before so this is a first for me. Part of it is therapy. I'm still struggling to process the end of the season and just want to air it all. The trouble is that most people I know don't give a damn. It's only on a forum, even a rival's forum, that people really "get" it.

I started following Brighton in the early 80s during the good times. I was eight when my Dad took me to my first match. It was a 0-0 draw with Stoke. God knows why I ever went back! My point here is that I only had the briefest of times watching us in the top flight before we reverted back to our historical role of being not at all good. I've seen a few of you on here complaining how unlucky you've been for a decade or two. Well I've been waiting 33 years to get back to the big time now and thanks to your boys I can add at least another year to that.

Today has genuinely hurt. Around every half an hour my mind has drifted back to last night and I get a fresh slug of sadness right in the gut. A season as good as ours simply shouldn't hurt that much. However, I am also glad I was at the match. It was an amazing experience: the kind of night you'll be glad to say you were there for in years to come.

We WERE unlucky in many respects. Decisions and injuries did go against us for the last few fixtures. I will admit that we bottled the Derby game though and that cost us in the end. Had we found a way to win that we could have afforded a draw at Boro' and then who knows?

Anyway, why am I here? Apart from the therapy bit, I wanted to pop by and applaud you and your team. I wasn't at the Hillsborough game but the TV made it pretty clear that your support was phenomenal. At The Amex you turned up in force and made yourselves heard. While I could barely bring myself to look at you all partying at the end I have to acknowledge that your end looked like a very fun place to be. As for your team, quite a few I our message boards would have you believe your win was purely down to luck. That's obviously wishful thinking. Your boys did a thorough, professional job on us. The home leg could have been won by more. We made you sweat out the first half last night but your second half was monumental. Your boys shut down every last inch of space. We got urgent, then careless, then rattled and made almost nothing. I kept waiting for you to break out with pace and grab the winner but at least that never came. I've no complaints. None against you anyway.

You've had long enough in the wilderness to have earned this shot at the top flight. I was always impressed/amazed with the numbers that turned up to cheer you on when you were in the third tier. That speaks volumes for what you are and could be in the future and I've got to admire it. For what it's worth, I hope you do it. All year long we have been the underdog. The fact that we've fallen short pains me but the underdog mantle passes to you for the playoff final. Hope it fits you.

I may never post on here again but I felt I needed to get that little lot off my chest.

Best of luck.

Very humble and its nice to see a balanced reasonable post. Only ones now waiting for us to fall will be the our illustrious neighbours with all their vitriolic bile, curdling away in the pits of their dispairing stomachs.

I looked at a Hull City forum yesterday and found them to be similar..Also found desperate pigs on one, sending praise to hull in the hope they will beat us 6-0.

Strange times we live in but....yes where was I.....ah yes! Good luck next season Brighton, you deserve it!

[goldensmoke]

Fantastic post sir.

When I say I know how you feel, I think I really do. Like I was I would imagine you were at the FA Cup semi final at Highbury in 1983. I was 13 and to this very day it is a match that I have never managed to get over and deal with. Probably like some other Owls on here the last few days. I still see Steve Foster in his yellow Adidas kit and that headband saluting at the camera as he walked out of the narrow tunnel in to the Highbury sunlight. I have a painfully acute recall of that fateful day. I can still remember the trainers I wore that day and the print they made on my trampled white semi final flag that sat under my chair and briefly waved in the air in hope at 1-1....

Jimmy Case's banana shot that hammered in off the underside of the bar, although it was in I was in denial and thought that maybe nobody would notice it went in. The sight of the clock end bubbling all over the place in yellow, never has a goal been such a dagger in the heart. In my dreams we still never close him down.

We played badly and never had control on hard, dusty April pitch, typical of the time. Bad luck rears its head in these times.. Our left back Ian Bailey broke his leg the week before at Bolton in a meaningless league game. We had to put a midfielder Pat Heard in as a stop gap left back and gambled on an obscure Yugoslavian called Ante Mirocevic to play in midfield. We huffed and puffed and scored the scrappiest equaliser that today wouldn't have been given for pole axing your goalkeeper who ended up on the floor as Ante hopped the rebound in from point blank at the far post. Cue bedlam and momentum and urging the Owls forward. Wembley Wembley rang out from the North bank and West stand we were in. The winning moment was approaching....Gary Bannister flashed a wicked cross in from the far touch line attacking the Clock End, it arrowhead in to the area and Andy McCulloch agonisingly cork screwed on to to the header but got too much contact on it. He headed it down in to the dust and it ballooned towards the goal line and as he waited for immortality, Steve Foster and his headband somehow managed to bicycle kick it from the jaws of the goal and away.

Then it came, the sucker punch. The biggest sickener I have ever known as the yellow bust forward, Gordon Smith I think... I remember a turn and a shot, Michael Robinson, it fell to him just a few yards out and he belted it in, Mel Sterland tried to block it on the line mainly with his arms but didn't have the heart to dive and stop it. Your keeper then made incredible stops under the bar to break our hearts, Gary Banno blaster over as the clock ticked down. Then it was over, Jimmy Melia ran on the pitch, bald top head and scraggy black hair in the breeze behind in his clown trousers and white shirt....'Jack's a good old stick and a good old pro, but I need it more than him....'

I'll never forget the pain in my throat as I forced back the tears on the tube, the FA Cup Final at Wembley was the whole world to me. We got to Waterloo and met up with our beloved Aunt Margaret who had just come back from the Dell to see Saints beat Liverpool 3-2. She flung her arms round us, me and my brother. I never got over losing her some years after either.

So 33 years is a long time. I saw this match up coming as far out as last New Year. We all know the detail of the last few days. This has been a journey of personal redemption for me. I'm on the picture posted by SWFC on the front page of Facebook over the weekend. It captured me flinging my scarf found above my head with the backdrop of the phone torches glaring out behind after going 2-0 up. When those lights came on around Hillsborough it was a magical moment and it was a sign that we were going to make it. It is the most special, spontaneous, emotional moment of connection with the Wednesdayites all together that I have ever known.

I didn't have a ticket for the AMEX. I had to go though even though I knew I probably wouldn't get in. That's how much the 'Brighton thing' as my wife now calls it meant to me. A 400 mile round trip to not get in, I had to try and be there. I tried everything to get in trust me on that. I usually do sneak in, but not a sniff of a ticket. I heard Brighton score as I trudged back to the car park, I put 5 live on the iPhone and we equalised before I got back to the car. I drove up the hill past the ground away from the setting sun, the South Downs (?) whatever those hills are were beautiful and I stopped at the top for a while and left us being battered down in the valley. I brought myself to find a pub at half time and endured the second half in silence surrounded by Brighton fans trying to suss out who I was. Thank god we were more controlled, I refused to believe we wouldn't concede one but the Owls were immense. A wonderful effort. The end came and rather than joy it was relief for me. They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

Not revenge on you Deeek. In the end we are hostages to fortune. We hope for the fleeting moments of wonder and joy. That's why we were chosen by Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton. I thank you for your superb post, it meant a lot to me to read it. I just wanted you to know that your team broke a 13 year old boy's heart. Now instead of the pain, there is a bond in history between SWFC and Brighton because of the way our two sets of fans have shown ferocious passion and love for their club this week. I salute you, you club and your fans.

[DesWalker]

Fair play to the OP.

That was the worst first half I've ever watched. We (players & fans) were helpless and couldn't do anything to stop the onslaught. Our goal killed the tie and at 1-1 at ht I had a feeling we'd hold on as the 2nd half couldn't be like the first.

I'd imagine those 2 legs would have been fantastic viewing for any neutral. A credit to both Wednesday and Brighton.

[Herb]

Great post.

As someone that was adamant Brighton would fade away earlier in the season I can safely say that I was wrong!!

You were unlucky recently in some respects, I still disagree with Dale Stephens red card despite the level of injury caused and getting 4 injuries in one game is very unfortunate.

I would be aggrieved with Knockaert if I was a Brighton fan though, if he can recover and play like that two days later I don't believe he couldn't at least have occupied space on Friday night and helped his team out. That could have ended up 3 or 4 nil with half an hour against 10 men.

If I'm honest I didn't enjoy the way your team plays as there is an emphasis on 'winning' free kicks in key areas but set pieces are clearly a strength so it's understandable. I think our team and the ref allowed themselves to be suckered into that game.

I continue to be impressed with Hughton's results though, looks a strong manager but with Newcastle and Norwich coming down and some strong sides sticking around it'll be hard for Brighton (and possibly Wednesday) to replicate this seasons form.

Lastly, having had the fortune to visit your training ground with the little one recently I must say how impressive it all looks. With the stadium and your facilities you do now look ready to really push on. Hopefully you will some day, just not at our expense!!

[Guest The Claw]

top man

[wakefieldowl]

I've said for a while that the top three deserved to go up as they were some distance better than the rest.

However that's not how football works and over the two legs Wednesday were the better side.

In all my years watching Wednesday I have never seen us so utterly ripped apart like those first 45minutes. It was absolute hell to watch. We were superb second half though.

Very brave post deeek and that will reflect much better on Brighton than some of the nasty bitter posts I've read. Very dignified. Good luck next season

[BobB]

Great post Deek. You captured the essence of football and created a soft spot for the Seagulls !

[Guest Jonowl06]

Brilliant and honest post. love football fans like that. best of luck for next season!

[gurujuan]

Spend most summers watching cricket at Hove, so know a lot of Brighton fans, and by and large, they're a decent bunch. All the best for next season Dereck, one of the consolations of missing out at Wembley, would be another away day in Brighton

[Tawny Owl]

Brighton were really unlucky over the two legs and I (and probably most other Wednesdayites) hope you make it next year. With Norwich and Newcastle coming down though it could be the playoffs again next year for you and maybe us too, so we might be doing all this again in a years time (but I hope not).

[gurujuan]

I guess, from his point of view, and definitely ours, we can look back on a royally entertaining season, and who knows, if we don't make it, maybe more of the same next year. Sometimes, it's not just about the end result, it's enjoying the journey. Whatever happens at Wembley, I've not had such an enjoyable season for many a year

[OxonOwl]

For me the season ended at Wolves and it had been a good one. Whatever happened in the new mini competition would be a bonus.

 

Winning against Brighton was fantastic. Even if we lose at Wembley it will have been a great play off.

 

I can see how devastating for Brighton it must be. To see auto promotion slip through your grasp and then see a play off chance disappear too.

 

Echoing Carlos' sentiments Brighton have had a great season and been a great side and have in many ways deserved promotion but that doesn't mean we haven't deserved it too. I feel sympathy but we are where we are.

 

I remember feeling sorry for Tranmere when we won the play off last time (not Brentford mind)

 

Good luck for next season