For February 24th I'm going back 20 years to 2001 and Brighton & Hove Albion's League Division 3 game against York City.
It may be hard to imagine today with Brighton firmly established in the Premier League in a state-of-the-art stadium seating 30,750 but there was a time when Albion's future hung very much in the balance. The club had suffered severe financial mismanagement and several winding up orders in the early 1990's. In 1995 the club agreed to sell the Goldstone Ground, their historic home in Hove without a plan for a new home in the area. York supporters will remember Brighton's final home game of the 1995/96 season against City which which was abandoned following a pitch invasion by protesting Brighton fans who wrongly believed that this was the final home game at the Goldstone Ground. Brighton vacated the ground the following season but came within 90 minutes of relegation from the Football League altogether before snatching a crucial draw at Hereford United which sent down the home side (on goals scored!) instead.
Brighton are a club which I have seen on four different home grounds including the Goldstone. In 1997/98 they pitched up at Gillingham's Priestfield stadium where they played for 2 seasons before striking a deal with Brighton & Hove Council to return to a temporary home at Withdean, a rundown athletics arena in Brighton. Not terribly suitable but at least it wasn't 70 miles away from Brighton! Brighton's so-called temporary home was used for 10 seasons until 2011 when they made their final move to their new home at Falmer on the edge of both the South Downs and Brighton following a long campaign by the club and fans.
This fixture against York was played during the Withdean years and this was my only visit. It finished 1-1 and was played in front of 6,555 people. Brighton, under the management of Micky Adams, included future Spurs and West Ham striker Bobby Zamora and future Luton and Stoke manager Nathan Jones ("you've been gone too long" according to Bananarama) in their side. Terry Dolan's York side included Alan Fettis, Mark Bower, Steve Agnew and David McNiven.
CRB Match No. 1213
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