 Friday, 18th Nov 2011 09:39 A look back at a clash with the Seagulls that in many ways mirrors our game on Saturday. Back in February 1980 Brighton arrrived at the Dell as the young pretenders just after a promotion battle between the two clubs, that coming after the two clubs hadnt been on each others radar for a long time. To set the scene for this game we have to go back to season 1977/78, Saints and Brighton found themselves in the same division for the first time since season 1961/62 when they meet in the old second division, in that 115 yar gap both clubs had gone in opposite directions, Saints to the top flight and Brighon to the third, when Brighton arrived at the Dell on the opening day of that season for a 1-1 draw they were seen as being upstarts and Saints fans bred on seeing some of the greats of English football found their cockiness hard to take, however at the end of that season the balance was restored as Saints went up and Brighton didnt, although the Seagulls lost out on goal difference to Spurs who needed and gained a point in the final game of the season at the Dell, there were much mutterings about a conspiray from Susses way after that game. Brighton did however go up the following season and early in 79/80 the clubs met at the Goldstoe where about 4,000 Saints supporters saw a 0-0 draw. Whe the Seagulls arrived at the Dell on 9th February 1980 it seemed the whole City was waiting for them to put them in their place, both on and off the pitch, after all we were the aristocrats of the South Coast, whereas only a few years earlier they were struggling to get crowds of 8-10,000. On the morning of the game Saints sat third in the league whereas Brighton were hovering around the relegation zone, although with only two points for a win back then they were never really going to get dragged too far into it. Brighton had a relatively small 1,500 or so fans in the Dell that day, not even the full complement in a crowd that at 21,856 was at the top end of the scale for Saints and to put it into perspective was bigger than for the visit of Liverpool and Man Utd that season, after three successive draws against the Seagulls since their resurgence its fair to say the ground was baying for blood. They didnt have long to wait, after only 8 minutes Dave Watson opened the scoring after chesting down a Nick Holmes free kick and stabbing the ball home from close range, on 19 minutes it was two when Mick Channon slotted home and Brighton were in disaray.
It would be the second half before the third, and again the Seagulls left men unmarked as Phil Boyer that seasons top flight leading scorer smashed home from 10 yards, there was a ray of hope when Brghton golden boy Peter Ward pulled one back with tenty minutes to go.
All talk after the game was of Saints actually mounting a challenge for the league, in truth Liverpool were still five points ahead and had played three games less so it was never taken seriously by anyone, however qualifying for Europe was a different matter and that was within our capabilities However what Saints fans leaving the Dell didnt know was that a couple of days later would come an announcement that would set the footballing world talking about Southampton, but sadly hindsight shows that in terms of season 1979/80 with the media circus and expectance now surrounding the club, it badly affected performances on the pitch and Saints would only win 5 of their final 14 games and sink to a final position of 8th mising out on Europe, Brighon would finish 7th from bottom six points clear of the frop zone, which back in those days of two points was comforrtable. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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DAVE WATSON
But a few minutes later Nick Holmes restored the three goal cushion and whilst Brighon were still reeling Trevor Hebberd made it five, the final minutes were played out with Saints content to pass the ball around and Brighton happy to let us do so for fear that if they tried to get the ball back we might tear them open again and Brighton manager Alan Mullery was severely taunted by the Saints fans as they savoured victory in what Lawrie McMenemy described as the most lethal performance of the season..
