Brighton's original Goldstone Ground was closed in 1997 after being the Club's home since 1902. The Club then spent two seasons in exile, ground sharing at Gillingham. Before returning to the South Coast in 1999, to take up temporary residence at the Withdean Athletics Stadium, whilst also looking for a suitable site to build a new stadium. After a long drawn out battle the Club have finally received planning permission to go ahead with the building of a new ground on the outskirts of Brighton and so hopefully in the next few years the Club will say farewell to the Withdean.
The initial impression of the stadium is of its picturesque surroundings, set into a hillside and mostly surrounded by woodland, giving it somewhat of a rural look. On three sides of the stadium are a number of basic 'temporary stands' which are uncovered and hence open to the elements. Only the North Stand on one side of the ground can be described as permanent, as this was in existence prior to the football club taking up residence (and will no doubt remain, when the Club eventually leave). This is the only stand that has some roof cover, albeit only partially to the rear and has a large Pavilion type building located behind it, which looks quite out of place at a football ground. The pitch is surrounded by an athletics running track; hence the supporters are set well back from the field of play. Although this type of multi-purpose stadium is popular on the Continent, this is the only current example in the Football League. Although the temporary stands are generally on the small side, this cannot be said of the South Stand. This stand was designed by McAlpine and has a capacity of 4,500.
After four years of wrangling and red tape, the Club have finally been given permission by Central Government to build a new 22,000 capacity stadium at Falmer on the outskirts of Brighton. It is hoped that construction of the new ground could be started in 2008 with the Club kicking off in its new home for the start of the 20010/11 season. Away fans are housed in the West Stand at one end of the stadium, in a small 'temporary' stand, more reminiscent of the structures at golf's British Open than a football ground. This seated stand is uncovered and has a capacity of 900 seats. On occasion this may also be shared with Brighton supporters, if the away Club elects to take a smaller allocation. Fans are set very well back from the pitch as there is a semi-oval grassed area behind the goal and then a running track in-between that and the stand itself.
You would expect from such an open stadium that the atmosphere would be fairly flat. However, the Brighton supporters really try hard to get behind their team and this made for a good atmosphere. The fans also make the most of the temporary nature of the stands, by making quite a large din by stamping their feet on the metal floor. The open nature of Withdean makes a visit daunting on a cold, wet day, but hey, it's going to be gorgeous, Hawaiian shirts only!!! THE CAR
The stadium is located two miles away from the town centre and is just off the London Road (A23). There is no parking allowed within a mile of the ground, due to matchday restrictions in place around the stadium (one of the conditions that were agreed for allowing Brighton to play there). `There is an excellent park and ride scheme which is available about one mile north of the ground, at Mill Road. Given that 90% of away fans come from the north and travel down the M23/A23, this is the ideal site, as it is right next to the main road. There's also a Park & Ride scheme while remember that your match ticket includes a park and ride ticket for either the train or bus. THE TRAIN The nearest railway station is Preston Park which is about a 10-15 minute walk from the ground. The station is served by trains from London Victoria, Kings Cross & London Bridge (it is cheaper to travel from the latter two). On coming out of the station and walking down to the bottom of the hill, turn left along the A23 for the stadium or right for the Preston Brewery Tap pub. After the game there is a football special waiting which takes you back along the short journey to Brighton. I chose to do this by parking in the city centre and then getting the train (it only takes five minutes) to Preston Park. This way you get the chance to sample the pubs around the station! THE PUB 'The Sportsman at the rear of the North Stand is now open on matchdays; though expect it to be crowded. The Preston Brewery Tap, located one mile south of the stadium, on the main A23 and is football friendly, but very crowded. Outside Brighton Mainline Station there are a number of excellent pubs, the Hare and Hound being one. The Evening Star, on Surrey Street is away fan friendly and only two a minute walk away from the station. It is in the CAMRA good beer guide and serves real Sussex ale and cider. Please note that alcohol is not served within the stadium.
THE HISTORY For many years they were based at the Goldstone Ground in Hove, until the board of directors decided to sell the stadium for their own financial gain. For two years, from 1997-99, they shared grounds with Gillingham, but have since returned to Brighton, where they now play at Withdean Stadium. This is not predominantly a football ground, having been used for athletics throughout most of its history and previously a zoo. After a four-year struggle that went to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the club gained final planning permission for a new stadium at Falmer near Brighton on 28 October 2005. However, it faces a new legal challenge from Lewes District Council, in whose area some of the stadium's car parking will be built. The sale of the Goldstone Ground, implemented by majority shareholder Bill Archer and his chief executive David Bellotti, proved controversial, and the move provoked widespread protests against the board. Brighton received little, if any money from this sale. In their last season at the Goldstone, 1996-97, the Seagulls were in danger of relegation from the Football League. They won their final game at the Goldstone over Doncaster Rovers, setting up a winner-take-all relegation game at Hereford United, who were level on points with the Seagulls. The Seagulls drew 1-1, and Hereford was consigned to the Football Conference on goals scored. The Seagulls stayed in the Third Division until winning the division in 2001. The following season, they won the Second Division, becoming only the seventh club in the history of the Football League to win successive championships in different divisions. The Seagulls, however, could not repeat their success in the First Division, and were relegated at the end of the 2003 season. They won promotion to the League Championship as the 2004 Second Division playoff winners. Due to the cost of the public enquiry, rent on Withdean Stadium, fees paid to use Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, and a general running deficit due to the low ticket sales inherent with a small ground, the club had an accumulated deficit of £9.5 million as of 2004. The Board of Directors are picking up £7 million of this, and the other £2.5 million must be raised from the operations of the club. In an effort to achieve this, a fundraising appeal known as the Alive and Kicking Fund has been started, with everything from nude Christmas Cards featuring the players to a CD single being released to raise cash. On 9 January 2005 this fundraising single 'Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)' went straight in at number 17 in the UK chart, gaining it national airplay on Radio 1. Unlike most clubs carrying a large debt, the club has never considered entering administration, as it was a previous period of administration that led to Archer gaining control of the club. On 28 October 2005, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the application for Falmer had been successful, much to the joy and relief of all the fans. Lewes District Council contested John Prescott's decision to approve planning permission for Falmer forcing a judicial review. This was based on a minor error in Prescott's original approval which neglected to state that some car parking for the stadium is in the Lewes district as opposed to the Brighton & Hove unitary authority. Construction of their new home has yet to begin. Brighton were founded in 1901 and 19 years later, in 1920, they were elected to the Football League's new Third Division — having previously been members of the Southern League. In the Southern League they won their only national honour to date, the FA Charity Shield, by defeating Football League Champions Aston Villa in 1910. The first known crest (1946-1975) to be used by Brighton & Hove Albion was the traditional coat-of-arms design of the twin towns of Brighton and Hove. A hybrid design employing the shield of Hove and the dolphin crest of Brighton was also used at times while a calligraphic shield was worn on the team shirts in the latter 1950s. During the 1974/75 season the club became known as 'The Dolphins' and by the beginning of the following season, a new club crest had been introduced. Both this nickname and crest were to prove short-lived, however, following an incident said to have taken place in the Bo'sun public house in Brighton. Prior to a 'derby' fixture with fierce rivals, Crystal Palace, a few away supporters started chanting, "Eagles, Eagles" to which a group of Brighton & Hove Albion fans responded with a chant of "Seagulls, Seagulls". Current club director, Derek Chapman, is said to have been among the group who first christened the club with this nickname. The club has been known as 'The Seagulls' ever since and in 1977 the club crest was changed once again to represent this. A round seagull crest was used on club shirts until 1998 when the current design was introduced. New chairman Dick Knight wanted to sweep away all the remnants of the old, disgraced regime and saw an updated crest as a sign to supporters of new beginnings and happier times ahead. During the 2001/02 season, however, the club shirts displayed no seagull crest at all. For the club's centenary season a return was made to the traditional shields of the former boroughs of Brighton and Hove (now officially one city). The Brighton shield shows Martlets (birds used often in Sussex heraldry) and coral which both represent the sea. The Hove shield also displays martlets and a ship that has run ashore, representing a French galley, commemorating the French attacks on the coast of Hove during the early 16th Century. Brighton's life as a Football League club brought little in the way of success and headlines until 1979, when they were promoted to the First Division as Second Division runners-up. In their first top-flight season, a 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal set the tone for an abysmal start to life in the big time. However, an away win to European Cup holders Nottingham Forest inspired a remarkable recovery and Brighton finished the season well safe from relegation with a respectable 37 points. The following season, Brighton found themselves in relegation trouble before an end-of-season rally saw them to safety. Season 1981-82 was the high point of Brighton's stay in the top flight, with the side in the top half or mid-table all season, finishing a credible 13th on 52 points. They remained at this level for four years before being relegated back to the Second Division in 1983. In their final season in the First Division, Brighton reached their first (and only to date) FA Cup final and drew 2-2 with Manchester United in the first match. Brighton's goals were scored by Gordon Smith and Gary Stevens. This was the final that featured the "miss" by Gordon Smith with virtually the last kick off the game in extra time prompting the well known phrase "and Smith must score" - in effect it was actually a save by the Manchester United goalkeeper, Gary Bailey. In the replay Manchester United won 4-0, despite Brighton dominating the first twenty minutes of the match. Brighton never made a serious bid to return to the First Division after their relegation in 1983 and they were relegated again in 1987 — this time to the Third Division. Just before the end of Brighton's relegation campaign, the club's directors had appointed Barry Lloyd as their new manager. He hadn't been able to save their Second Division status, but he helped them regain it at the first time of asking. In 1990-91 Brighton spent the season pushing for promotion to the First Division and finished sixth. They reached the play-off final after beating Millwall 4-1 at home and 2-1 away but lost to Notts County in the final at Wembley 3-1. If the disappointment of missing out on a top flight was traumatic for Brighton supporters, it was nothing compared to the traumas that the club would encounter over the next few years. The club's fans were hoping for a push for promotion to the upcoming new Premier League for the 1991-92 season, but instead they watched their side battle against relegation. The battle was lost and Brighton started the 1992-93 season in the new Division Two. Barry Lloyd quit in December 1993, having failed to mount a serious challenge for promotion to Division One, and was replaced by Liam Brady. Brady lasted just two years before being replaced by Jimmy Case, but the transition came too late to prevent Brighton from going down to Division Three at the end of the 1995-96 season. Meanwhile, the club's financial situation was becoming increasingly precarious and the club's directors had come to a decision that the Goldstone Ground would have to be sold in order to pay off some of the club's huge debts. Jimmy Case was sacked after a terrible start to 1996-97 saw Brighton stuck the bottom of the league by a considerable margin — they seemed certain to be relegated from the Football League just 14 years after they had almost won the FA Cup. The club's directors, who appeared to not care in the slightest of the on-field fortunes of the club, appointed a relative unknown in Steve Gritt, the former joint manager of Charlton Athletic, in hope of performing a miracle survival. Brighton's league form steadily improved under Gritt, although their improving chances of survival were put under further threat by a two-point deduction imposed as punishment for a pitch invasion by fans who were protesting against the sale of the Goldstone ground. By the last day of the season, after being 13 points adrift at one stage they were off the bottom of the table and had to play the team directly below them, Hereford United — the game was in their hands. If Brighton won or drew, they would be safe. Brighton defender Kerry Mayo scored an own goal in the first half and it looked as though their 77-year league career was over. But a late goal saved the day and Brighton retained their league status on goal difference. Robbie Reinelt scoring the goal that will write his place in Albion history and in the process ending Hereford's 25-year league career. The sale of the Goldstone ground went through in 1997 and this led to Brighton having to play some 70 miles away at Gillingham's Priestfield stadium. 1997-98 saw Brighton endure more dismal form but they were never in any real danger of going down because Doncaster Rovers seemed set for the drop long before Christmas due to exceptionally dreadful form. But the board of directors wanted to move the club forward, and knew that they couldn't go on hoping forever that another team would do even worse than them. So Gritt was axed in February 1998 and replaced by former club captain Brian Horton, who already had managerial experience with Hull, Oxford, Manchester City and most recently Huddersfield. Brighton continued playing their home games at Gillingham for the 1998-99 season and were in contention for a play off place under Brian Horton. In January 1999 Horton left to join Port Vale as manager and Jeff Wood was installed as the new manager of Brighton. With two wins and a draw in the first three games under Wood things continued to look good, however after picking up just 1 point from the next 10 games Brighton fell from play off contention and in April 1999 Wood was sacked. Micky Adams was appointed Brighton's new manager. Brighton finished the season in 17th place, their early season form enough to ensure they didn't spend a 3rd straight season fighting relegation to the Conference. For the start of the 1999-2000 season The Seagulls moved back to Brighton and started playing their home games at Withdean Stadium, a converted athletics track owned by the local council. The season started very well with Brighton born debutant Darren Freeman scoring a hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition of Mansfield in the first game of the season. Brighton's early season form was very patchy as they struggled to find consistency as a rebuilt squad struggled to gel. This early season inconsistency was carried over into the New Year. One bright point was Darren Freeman becoming the first goal scorer of the new millennium when he scored after just 2 minutes against Exeter City on January 2, 2000. In February 2000 Brighton signed a little known forward on loan from Bristol Rovers called Bobby Zamora. Zamora made an instant impact scoring in his debut, the 1-1 home draw with Plymouth. Brighton lost their next game away at Northampton 1-0, this was to prove their last defeat of the season as the following game a Zamora hat-trick inspired them to a 7-1 win at Chester City. Unfortunately the run of 8 wins and 6 draws came too late to mount a run at the play offs and Brighton finished 11, just 5 points off the play off places. 2000-01 was Brighton's first successful season for 13 years. They were crowned champions of Division Three and promoted to Division Two, where they made an excellent start and looked good bets for a second successive promotion. Adams left in October 2001 to work as Dave Bassett's assistant at Leicester, being replaced by former Leicester and Blues manager Peter Taylor. The transition proved to be a plus point for Brighton, who maintained their good form and ended the season as Division Two champions — winning a second successive promotion. Just five years after almost succumbing to the double threat of losing their Football League status and going out of business completely, Brighton were one division away from the Premiership. Peter Taylor decided against renewing his short-term contract after the promotion triumph pursuing potentially bigger and better things at rich and up-and-coming club Hull City, so Brighton promoted youth team manager Martin Hinshelwood in his place. However, Brighton made a terrible start to the 2002-03 Division One campaign, after winning their first game 3-1 away at Burnley followed by a 0-0 draw against Coventry they set a record losing sequence losing 12 games in a row. Hinshelwood then became Director of Football and Steve Coppell was handed the manager's duties after the 10th defeat of the run. Coppell's spell started very brightly with a 2-0 half time lead against Sheffield United, however some questionable refereeing decisions led to Brighton losing 4-2, the 12th and final defeat is a result that no Brighton fan needs reminding of. Brighton stopped the slump by beating Bradford 3-2 at Withdean and continued to improve substantially under Coppell and looked as though they might be able to pull off a miracle survival. Although the great escape eventually proved beyond them, Brighton gained some satisfaction by staying alive until the last game of the season, a 2-2 draw at Grimsby. It was at the end of this season that club legend Bobby Zamora, who had been instrumental in the double championship, was sold to Tottenham Hotspur. Coppell moved to Reading in October 2003 and was replaced by Mark McGhee, who had achieved Division Two promotion success with Reading in 1994 and Millwall in 2001 — both times as champions. McGhee achieved promotion with Brighton at the first time of asking after a dramatic two-legged play-off semi-final against Swindon in which Adam Virgo headed an injury time equaliser in extra time to take the tie to 2-2 and a subsequent penalty shoot out which Albion won. This was followed by a 1-0 victory over Bristol City in the 2003-04 Division Two play-off final (courtesy of a Leon Knight penalty in the 82nd minute) gaining them a place in the newly-named Coca-Cola Football League Championship for the 2004-05 season. Albion finished 20th out of 24 clubs in the 2004-2005 season, narrowly avoiding the drop by a single point, but achieving their highest league position for 14 years. Brighton were relegated two games before the end of the 2005-06 Championship campaign after a disappointing season on the South coast. The season began with uncertainty, over the future of manager Mark McGhee and consequently the out of contract players. Several board member, led by major shareholder Tony Bloom wanted McGhee sacked, but chairman Dick Knight still backed him. The situation was eventually resolved with McGhee retained as manager, youth coach Dean Wilkins promoted to first team coach, and fist team coach Dean White named chief scout. With pre season came mixed messages, then manager Mark McGhee proclaiming promotion was the aim, while Knight stated mid-table would be acceptable at the pre season fans forum. The mixed feelings for Seagulls fans continued into the season, as new signing from non league Alex Revell scored a debut goal to secure a 1-0 victory at Rotherham, but in the immediate aftermath young forward Colin Kazim-Richards handed in a transfer request, which would eventually lead to him leaving the club on deadline day, to sign for Sheffield United for £150,000, with a 25% sell on clause. Results quickly deteriorated, and manager Mark McGhee was sacked at a meeting with Albion chairman Dick Knight on 7 September 2006. Assistant manager Bob Booker also left the club on the same day, after several years working with a number of managers. Many fans had lost faith in McGhee during the relegation of the previous season, and this was cited by Knight as one of the key reasons for his departure, along with the loss of the dressing room. Following McGhee's sacking the club installed Dean Wilkins as caretaker-manager, saying they would have to give Wilkins a chance to see what he can do for the club. Chief scout Dean White was promoted to Wilkins' assistant manager. The pair were given the posts on a permanent basis on 29th September, and former player Ian Chapman was also added to the coaching staff shortly afterwards. It was to prove a difficult season for the rookie management team, whose inexperience was reflected by that of the team, 10 youth players having been awarded contracts in the summer, along with several youth team graduates already in the first team. There were some highlights, beating Leyton Orient 4-1 home and away, winning 2-1 away at Scunthorpe United, only one of who home defeats for the eventual champions, and smashing Conference side Northwich Victoria 8-0 at home in the first round of the FA Cup against. A 3rd round tie away at West Ham United away in the 3rd round of the competition was a break from League One for Brighton's fans, but their side were beaten 3-0 after a disappointing second half performance. Albion also reached the Southern area Semi-Final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. January signing Bas Savage claimed cult fame on television programme Soccer AM for his moonwalk celebration following each one of his goals scored for the Albion, which were also proving crucial in keeping Brighton away from a relegation battle. On 24th April Dean Wilkins signed a three year contract extension. (Thanks to the usual suspects for their help in this article.)
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