Seagull

You'll make the play-offs, you only need another 20-23 points. 1.35pts a game average, thats lower mid-table form. Auto's, who knows, but loads of sides in this league will have a run of games without a win, and then pick up again. We picked up 3 points from 15 in December and then 13 from 15 since then. It's just a crazy league!

We’ve got a few hot headed players I’d agree, Taricco, Greer, Calderon and Barnes for example. We certainly didn’t do ourselves any favours at St Marys. I wouldn’t say that’s indicative of the entire season though. Thankfully, Taricco is only a back-up so hopefully won’t play to many more games and Calderon has been dropped on a couple of occasions so hopefully those two won’t be about causing agro in the future! I don’t understand why I should have brought up the goal that wasn’t allowed? I was talking about Brighton’s discipline, not the game between us, and even if I was, that goal has nothing to do with discipline? I wouldn’t dispute we got lucky on Monday. You should have been 1-0 up with that effort that crossed the line. Fair comment on “why post”, I’m normally don’t bother, especially with the rather hostile reception I seem to get on here. I was asked a question, and on the tiny chance it wasn’t just a jibe, I thought it rude not to reply. Just for the record, I’m not Gus Poyet, or a player, I have nothing to do with what goes on, on the pitch..! El-Abd milked it, I’m not saying it’s something I like, but as much as it’s another excuse to call Brighton cheats and so on, you know as well as I do that it goes on up and down the country every week. El-Abds not the first, he won’t be the last!

Well I'm wasting my time replying because it doesn't matter what I say, the vast majority on here will have their minds made up already. On the tiny, tiny chance that there's someone reading who's not just going to shout me down I'm happy to give my honest thoughts though. The club analyst put some stats on our forums the other week, I'm not going to do a search for them now but they're there nontheless, and it showed that on average the opposition commit more fouls than we do in games, and they also get more yellow cards than we do. I suspect you'll just say thats because we dive and wind up the oppo to make them conceede fouls etc, so I'm fully aware I'm never gonna change your opinions. We play very wide, as you'll have seen in our games, our centre backs will spread to the full back position at goal kicks etc, I think this often leaves us vulnerable if we lose the ball, so perhaps we commit more proffessional fouls when we lose the ball in a dangerous area. We've also got 3/4 excellent wingers. Buckley, LuaLua, Noone are all very quick and skillfull. I know you were all crying blue murder that Buckley dived when he got nudged by Harding but I do think when you have a player moving at pace, just the slightest contact can bring them down. I don't think thats limited to Brighton, but most quick wide players. Taricco was a moron getting sent off at your place, needs to keep his gob shut. Painter had a very harsh red card for us at Leicester. Barnes was taken out with a two footed challenge and then throwing to the ground by a Burnley player but the ref decided to send Barnes off. Vincelot was elbowed in the face by a Burnley player, and rather than going down, decided to jab him in the back (idiot) and Greer was a muppet to do what he did to Forte. I think Barnes, Vincelot and Painter’s reds were all the first of their careers. Taricco has always been that way throughout his career though and Greer has been hot headed in the past too (got sent off on his debut for us and his last game for Swindon). El-Abd has a history of over reacting to contact too (although in some ways I wish Vincelot had vs Burnley when he was elbowed in the face, better that than reacting!). I don’t think we’re as bad as some would like to suggest and I certainly don’t think Poyet sets up the team to play that way, but as I’ve said a number of times, I’m pretty sure you couldn’t care less what I think. Last post I’m allowed anyway, so 24 hours before I can reply to any further posts, if they’re worth replying too!

Forte went down like a sack of spuds too. Pot, Kettle...

I know there were a few empty seats but the home end sold out a long, long time ago (before the away tickets went on sale). I'm pretty sure every home league game so far has been sold out for home fans. Any empty seats are people with a ticket, who are not using it. There are a few more of these than you would expect, I can only guess at a few reasons why. 1, we have 3,500 corporate seats that are sold out for the season. Presumably, some weeks, those that are bought by a company etc are not always used. 2, we've had a massive surge in season ticket sales obviously, I think some people bought one to ensure they could get tickets for the big games, the opening game, Palace, West Ham, Liverpool in cup etc but can't make it every week. 3, the stand to your right (East Stand) is where all club/player comp tickets are, sometimes they wont all be used. Increasing the capacity won't stop these people from not turning up in the future, but it will mean there are more tickets on sale for those who wouldn't be able to buy one this season! The stand opposite you holds 2688 people. The away end at Withdean held 900. That's pretty much 3 times the size of it. The same size as the Rainham End at Gillingham which doesn't look all that small (http://www.groundhopping.se/res/Gillingham/rainhamend.jpg). So it's not actually that small, I think it just looks so small because its dwarfed by the massive West Stand. The transport really isn't that bad. I've been to every game this season, I haven't left early once, and I've never had to wait 1 hour. The longest I think I've waited is about 20 minutes, which really wasn't too much of a problem. Additionally the TVs in the concourses and Dicks Bar have details on when the next trains are arriving, so if you can't be bothered to wait outside, you can have a pint, watch Sky Sports News or the evening live match and nip to the station a little latter, and pretty much walk straight onto a train. I would fully agree that a stadium in the city centre would be better. No arguments. However that wasnt an oversight. It just wasnt possible. There was no location in town that would have been suitable. Hence we had to have two public enquiarys to get planning permission.

You could easily find stupid twitter comments from Saints fans too. It's just the internet, where the idiots get heard and the sensible ignored.

In addition to the above (cant see an edit button), we had to dig about four levels into the ground, so that added to the cost. That's also why the ends are fairly small. Falmer was the only site for the ground, and to have it built there it had to blend into the south downs. It just wasn't practical to have large ends at either end. If we'd been lucky enough to have had a suitable area in Brighton which didn't need to be dug into the ground I'm sure it would have a different design but we had to work with what we had available. A lot of other clubs fans have said its weird because its lopsided/wonky. To be honest, I like that. If it wasn't, everyone would just say it was a bowl!

That figure incorporates the cost of the planning application, which spanned two public enquairys, I've got it in my head that that came to about 20m but that sounds insanely high so I've possibly got a little confused there, it was in the millions though. We also had a whole new road flyover built to deal with the traffic and the cost of steel has rocketed in the last few years. Actually NONE of it is paid for by bank loans. The whole thing has been paid for by the chairman. With regards to other peoples thoughts on the acoustics, we've actually had a lot of opposition fans tell us how fantastic they are. Obviously we're all like kids on coke at the moment as we're so excited about the place that we tend to check out the opposition fans thoughts out after most games. I'll be the first to admit it wasn't brilliant today, it was perhaps more one of those days where the match dictated a lot of the crowds noise (such as panto villans, ref decisions, blabla) but its actually very good on the whole and have had away fans mention as much plenty of times.

It's bloody football banter! If Gus had said something like "if Saints can keep up with us" you don't think you'd be all over that too? Come on! Football fans are all the same. They all get precious about their own clubs. Nigel says something about Brighton, all the Brighton fans get upset. Gus says something about Saints, you lot get upset. Anyway, that's my third and final post I'm allowed. Congratulations on your promotion. Come on mate, it's all part of the fun. If it was roles reveresed I think you'd enjoy a bit of goading. All football fans do.

Yeah and the given reasons are fine. You're all giving him an agenda here. Its the newspaper trying to make a story out of nothing. It's a throw away remark after being told of your result at Plymouth. And yes I'm fully aware many Brighton fans are guilty of the same reaction to throw away remarks, but from all the comments on here about Brighton fans moaning I thought you lot were bigger and better than that? BREAKING NEWS. Football fans, whoever they support, are just PEOPLE, who react to stuff. One group of fans is no different to another. But I suppose that would be really boring and give no one a reason to waste their evening on the internet would it?

So much for "we are Southampton, we don't care about you". He's not having a dig at Southampton, he's asking why your game was allowed to be moved and ours wasn't? That's not a criticism of you but of the football league. Get over yourselves ffs.

Away end will hold 2,500 and I doubt police will restrict numbers.

Congrats from me too. You were excellent at Withdean (looked a lot better than Huddersfield). Certainly deserve it.

Well done chaps!

Are you for real? 94 points, Champions with games to spare and we bottled it? Behave yourself lol.

Take it you didnt see our performance at Colchester then? There's no chance of us throwing the game to spite Saints, whether we win or not, no idea, hope we do. Hudds a very good team though and have a lot to play for so I'm not overly confident.

I agree with you that winning is the ultimate aim. I think it's great that we (Brighton) have achieved promotion playing great football but I'd have been just as happy sneaking into the play-offs and fluking a play-off final win really. It's the end result that matters, not how you get there. Despite that, its been a joy to watch and I doubt I will ever see such a dominant Brighton side in my life time. Against average League One sides we've totally dominated possession and not given them a sniff. I disagree that we only have one way of playing. If that was the case we'd have dropped more points. We have on occasions changed our style and been more direct. Throughout the season we've also consistantly adapted the formation to keep the opposition on their toes. I think Poyet's comments are wrong, in the sense that there is no way Dagenham could impose themselves on us like you did. Your two centre backs and Hammond knocked the ball about very well at the back, which helped you get up the pitch and pin us back. There is no way Dagenham could do that. There is some truth after that though, as once you've got into our half, you would often look for a direct ball into the danger area. I say some truth though, as it isnt your only approach and you clearly can mix it up and play it a bit too. You played to your strengths and it won you the game, fair play no arguments. I think Gus is just trying to lift our spirits after a defeat by saying appriciate the football we play. Next season in the Championship we have to get some better athletes in if we're to compete. We need to be bigger, stronger and quicker. I think you've already got that and won't need to tinker with your side as much as we will. I agree with the fun and the rivalry comment too. No one actually hates Saints. It's a bit of banter, it makes the season a bit more fun. If we're close competitors it may well carry on for a bit but if we're not closely competing in the league structure it will fade away. We concentrate on Palace every week. If we werent competing with you no one would pay any attention to your results. See above. You're not our rivals. Palace are our rivals. Then you'd probably say there's a strong dislike of Pompey. I recall watching one of your games with Pompey in the past and us all cheering when you scored!

The club releasing a dvd has bloody nothing to do with it! It was Poyets first game, it was a good result and it was on Sky so very easy to stick on dvd and make a few quid. Hardly indicates a burning hatred lol! You may well have been called a scummer but Ive never heard you refered to as scum by our fans! Always been known as Southampton! To think grown men are ******s, hang on a second, we're football fans, we've got irrational hatreds, its part of the game its part of the fun! All the best, look forward to playing you next season.

It's interesting and its banter, dont take it so bloody seriously! No one in Brighton actualy hates you lol!

At your place, under tremendous pressure, we were incredibly calm and didnt buckle under pressure. Rather than pump the ball forward to no one, lose it, and then have to contain more pressure, we slowed the game down as much as possible. Of course you won't like that, but thats football. We werent there to lie down and get beat, or to entertain you. We were there to get a result and we did. Other managers haven't complained about it. It's not been mentioned once before and there haven't been any complaints to the Football League. There is no way we will roll over to Huddersfield. If you don't beat us, we will want to go the whole season unbeaten. We're also lifting the trophy that day and wont want to lift it after a defeat. We might play a couple of fringe players against them. Although we might play a couple of fringe players tomorrow. We've won the league, we can afford to give a few other squad members a chance to prove themselves. If we do, they'll have something to prove too.

And for what its worth Nigel is talking out of his arse. We've been so much better than everyone we've played at home this season we haven't needed to use the ball boys to get any advantage, our management are no different to anyone else in terms of getting upset when a bad foul is made and if the implication is that we dive for penalties, rubbish, take a bloody look at them on Seagulls Player, we are good team and get into the oppositions box more than most sides, we've got skilful players which slow centre backs can't cope with, thats why we've had penalties. Besides, we've missed most of them!

Indeed, its a results business and footballers are paid to get results. Everyone in football tries to get any advantage they can and if anyone thinks otherwise they are very nieve. Evidence of a brilliant passing game? We had a 1st year pro making one of his first ever apperances at centre back and the useless Argie Battipiedi in midfield due to injuries/suspensions which certainly didn't help. We displayed another side of our game that night which helped us grind out a good point which could have been more. You've got an excellent squad of players so however good we are you can't expect us to turn up and play you off the park away from home. We don't hate you, you're not local rivals. We think Adkins/Harding and Hammond are ******s and you have been our biggest threat and competitive rivals this season. If you can't accept that someone might dislike a few of your staff and think that means we hate the whole bloody club its you who needs to grow up!

It's not far off. Of course infrastructure doesnt equal success but it certainly helps and you'll be back in the Championship sooner or later. Hahaha, Palace hate us first and foremost, they don't get on with Millwall and they just laugh at Charlton.

Dislike Adkins, Harding and Hammond more than Saints. We've got proper rivals in Palace.

The clubs infrastructure and finances are there now to support 2nd tier or higher football, with or without Poyet.