A Seagull Eye's View

[Hedwig]

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.

What an excellent, and more importantly honest summary of the last few days' events.

Heartfelt commiserations to you and your fellows 'Gulls, whilst appreciating your good wishes for our Wembley outing also..

 

All the very best wishes for next season...

[Guest]

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.

Refreshing and a fair unbiased assessment, Reading SOME of your fans posts from this and other games, after having no affiliation and a neutral prospective I began to resent them as much as weeds united ltd. My initial thoughts where they're a deluded set of  southern mardy fans with a a bad taste of sour grapes. I think our fans have acted gracefully in this situation a lot of us would of still been very happy with the year even if we didn't make Wembley, a lot of your fans have let themselves down with insults like southern monkeys, never quite got that one. But i suppose we all have our fair share.

  your fans that are moaning should of gone to Hillsborough. With only 1900 you were v quiet. If SY police would of allowed, we would of filled all ends as we did against Wycombe on may 2012. We pressured you from the off and your players just didn't seem to cope, maybe we should of gone for more and made it count but we know BHA are a good side and can get you on the counter.

 The second game you knew you had to get behind the team as Wednesday did and bought flags for every fan I can only imagine in one of those stadiums it would be v loud. BHA responded perfectly, We were v nervy and fortunately held on to go in 1-1 any other day you would of beaten us. But a lot of pundits applauded Wednesday,  Hughtons mate Holloway summed it up perfectly "over the 2 legs Wednesday just did a job on Brighton"

 Anyway you should be proud of your team. some quality players that if you can keep hold of you'll be up there next season. Maybe competing against SWFC  hope not though.  

[dumboldowl]

An excellent post Deek, I know exactly how you feel. It is a summation which could have applied to most of the 56 seasons that I have been supporting Wednesday. Keep your chin up, the bad days make the good ones taste so much better.

[Bramhall Owl]

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.

this for me. the following season, we played Portsmouth and Brighton away on consecutive weekends (typical great fixture planning by the Football League!). Anyway, I couldn't do 2 horrendous trips like that in 2 weeks so I naturally chose the Brighton game to hopefully see us get some sort of revenge for the semi.

it worked out well....the trip to Portsmouth sounds like the journey from hell. Not only did it tip down all game, the Inter City Owl train broke down in the way back and finally limped into Sheffield in the early hours of Sunday morning. meanwhile, a week later it was glorious sunshine at Brighton and we won (in fairness we also won at Pompey) and that clown Jimmy Melia had just been sacked but turned up in the crowd to stir things up. Cue a torrent of abuse from Wednesday fans.

I do think that Monday night finally laid to rest the pain of Highbury '83. But here's a thought.......if footballing retribution/revenge (call it what you will) always happens at some time, what horrors have we got coming from the great unwashed at S2 as pay back for BDM, Wembley and the Mind the Gap Derby? I am shuddering at the thought!,

[31Dec1966]

Great post, and fair play to you.  But, which decision(s)  went against you ?  I know we all see things from our teams perspective but I 'd really like you to point out the decision(s) that you feel went against you.  You changed the decision to award the forestieri goal in the first leg.  Matias would certainly have had a penalty in the PL (although it wasn't one).

It was a straight red for the Forestieri barge (and the one after didn't even get another yellow), and another for the dangerous foul on Helan.  Forestieri would have been sent off had he dived so gracefully like Knockaert did over Loovens little toe.  Brighton platers were forever surrounding the ref, and got Loovens and lees booked before 15 minutes.

If you mean the alleged push on Dunk for the goal, players are ALWAYS doing that, and it's hardly ever penalised.  

[31Dec1966]

Good post Geeeeek

However, you have question the tactics of your team and supporters.

It was obvious your players were told to get our players booked or sent off...The first few minutes were successful in obtaining and advantage by diving to get our defenders cautioned and therefore nervous where tackling your bunch of 'Tom Daly's'. The number of free kicks your team had around our penalty area would draw praise from 'the champions of free kick diving' Barcelona.

Your fans also adopted the unsporting tactics of The Spanish fans by booing every time our players had the ball. Disgraceful behaviour that brings the sport into disrepute.

Finally, the referee was incompetent and was greatly influenced by your moaning players. The disgraceful rugby and wrestling tackles on Fessi and Helen most definitely were red card offences.

Sporting people do not admire your combined efforts of winning at all cost and by any method, aka Hispanic way, is not something we want to see in England.

What a brilliant post.  Agree with every word.  I respect the OP but I cannot wish Brighton well.  They were unsporting and disgraceful.

[HOOTIE AND THE SHIT TU]

I don't think I've ever seen 4 players injured from the same team, in the same game

I have seen Wednesday lose a cup final after being 2-0 up though

I've also seen us lose a penalty shoot out against Wolves, despite us being 3-0 up in the shoot out

Someone once said "it's a funny old game" and it certainly is

We had a bit of overdue luck against Brighton, in a season when it seemed we were constantly playing against 12 men

I don't think anyone can say we haven't deserved to be where we are

It's tough on Brighton, and I have a new found respect for the club and its supporters

The football gods have conspired against Wednesday for many years

European bans in the season we qualify, parachute payments the season after we are relegated

The list is endless

Good luck next season Brighton, unless you're playing us.

[Deeeeeek]

Great post, and fair play to you.  But, which decision(s)  went against you ?  I know we all see things from our teams perspective but I 'd really like you to point out the decision(s) that you feel went against you.  You changed the decision to award the forestieri goal in the first leg.  Matias would certainly have had a penalty in the PL (although it wasn't one).

It was a straight red for the Forestieri barge (and the one after didn't even get another yellow), and another for the dangerous foul on Helan.  Forestieri would have been sent off had he dived so gracefully like Knockaert did over Loovens little toe.  Brighton platers were forever surrounding the ref, and got Loovens and lees booked before 15 minutes.

If you mean the alleged push on Dunk for the goal, players are ALWAYS doing that, and it's hardly ever penalised.

  

What a brilliant post.  Agree with every word.  I respect the OP but I cannot wish Brighton well.  They were unsporting and disgraceful.

The sending off of Stephens against Boro, the decision to chalk off Forestieri's goal at Hillsborough and the "alleged" push on Dunk were all analysed by the pundits and largely deemed to be the correct decisions. I genuinely don't think that this is a case of looking at these things solely through Seagull-tinted glasses. Add to that the incredible "village of the damned" thing we had going on at your place and I think we're entitled to think that fate was testing us.

I'm not going to dispute that we were artful in drawing the "foul" and definitely got dirtier as the game progressed. In my defence I said right from the off that we were rattled and that's why I meant by it. I wouldn't have been at all surprised if we'd failed to finish the match with less than 11 on the pitch again on Monday and when Kayal lunged in I was mouthing "no, no, no, no" and waiting for the red to come out.

As for the second quote, I'm sorry that you feel that way. It was a very high stakes match and I suspect that had we been on top and you'd been chasing the game then your approach might have been similar. Unsporting I can accept. Disgraceful seems very harsh.

All of the above aside, thanks to almost all of you for the fair hearing.

And I booked the day off for the playoff final and everything. Balls!

[31Dec1966]

  

The sending off of Stephens against Boro, the decision to chalk off Forestieri's goal at Hillsborough and the "alleged" push on Dunk were all analysed by the pundits and largely deemed to be the correct decisions. I genuinely don't think that this is a case of looking at these things solely through Seagull-tinted glasses. Add to that the incredible "village of the damned" thing we had going on at your place and I think we're entitled to think that fate was testing us.

I'm not going to dispute that we were artful in drawing the "foul" and definitely got dirtier as the game progressed. In my defence I said right from the off that we were rattled and that's why I meant by it. I wouldn't have been at all surprised if we'd failed to finish the match with less than 11 on the pitch again on Monday and when Kayal lunged in I was mouthing "no, no, no, no" and waiting for the red to come out.

As for the second quote, I'm sorry that you feel that way. It was a very high stakes match and I suspect that had we been on top and you'd been chasing the game then your approach might have been similar. Unsporting I can accept. Disgraceful seems very harsh.

All of the above aside, thanks to almost all of you for the fair hearing.

And I booked the day off for the playoff final and everything. Balls!

You could still come to the Final, you've got a shirt with blue and white stripes haven't you?  you seem a decent sort !!

 

I'm glad you replied but I stand by "disgraceful".    2 cynical dreadful fouls by Kayal, and another by Bruno on Helan. And, I think you set out from minute 1 to get free kicks by cheating so the word is correct.  Anyway, let bygones be bygones, and I wish you personally all the best, especially as you're a real supporter.

[PraiseOrGrumble]

Gracious in defeat, fair play to you.

[vid80]

Cheers pal

Still having nervous poo 's thinking about that first 20 mins

[Deeeeeek]

You could still come to the Final, you've got a shirt with blue and white stripes haven't you?  you seem a decent sort !!

Who'd know the difference?