Stop it – Crystal Palace fans find Brighton and Hove Albion’s rise almost beyond their comprehension

On Saturday 26 October 2002, Crystal Palace beat Brighton & Hove Albion 5–0 at Selhurst Park.

Exactly 21 years later. Albion will face Ajax in a competitive European match at the state-of-the-art Amex Stadium.

Brighton have left Palace behind, although the so-called supermen are sure to descend on West Street and Terminus Road in early February when the Eagles play a Premier League match at Falmer.

But Albion fans will be more likely to be worried about having to battle the man who has been eliminated from the Champions League and has therefore entered the Seagulls’ Europa League territory.

Albion fans are now more likely to see Chelsea as their fiercest opponents, as after nearly 50 years, the Brighton-Palace rivalry is losing momentum.

Increasingly, Albion is praised and loved by influential commentators around the world.

Even Pep Guardiola thinks the Seagulls are the best team in the world at playing from the back.

So that is the phrase most likely to be heard around Croydon, Coulsdon, Kenley and West Wickham from beleaguered Palace supporters in the coming days as Albion bow out of European competition to AEK Athens THURSDAY.

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MANAGER:
A great moment for him

The importance of set pieces came to the fore again on Saturday as striker Luke Plange capitalized on Owen Moxon’s fine pass to open the scoring for the club and put his side ahead in a situation that is always a close call. a tight match.

Manager Paul Simpson said: “It was a good delivery and we had enough momentum to go for it. “Luke got past the first man, which caused the problem and that’s where the goal came from.

“We had other chances from some of our free kicks, but I don’t think we cashed in or didn’t quite get it where we wanted to with them.

“We created some really good chances and played some really good football getting into some good areas, and I just thought it was a really good performance.

“I admit they had the ball a little bit after changing formation in the first half, one of the outside centre-backs came off a little bit, but I think we are safe at the back because we are in form good all around. . “The players played with real discipline. There’s a lot of good that comes from it. Like I said, I’m just disappointed that I didn’t get 3 points.

On what this target will mean for the Palace loanee, he told us:
“It was something that was very important to him. He was disappointed not to start last week, but he knew he had to persevere and keep working.

“I had to have a little chat with him after what happened to him last weekend, because he didn’t react properly when he was abandoned.

“I just told him he had to wait for his chance. Unfortunately for Josh Kayode, he is injured so Luke gets his chance again on Saturday. That’s how it works sometimes.

“It was a goal he deserved because of the race he did. He could have very easily had a goal against Shrewsbury as he got past the first man and pushed him against the far post. “This time he received a reward right on set because he completed the work we asked him to do when he arrived in the area. I hope he gets used to it because he is a top scorer, a very good finisher with both feet.

“Hopefully this will give him a little bit of a springboard moving forward.” The good thing about what he did on Saturday is I think he was playing with fire in his belly.

“I told him before the game that he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone at Lincoln, he just needs to go out and prove that he deserves to be on the field, and I think he he did that. “I took him off the field because they were trying to send him off, they appealed everything, the referee gave him a yellow card for something and nothing, so we don’t want to take the risk.

And the way his strike partner Sean Maguire completed the move from the off was another positive step forward.

“Good for Luke, good for Sean, they are a real threat,” he admitted. “The important thing was that they did well throughout the first half, even when the ball went high, they played and didn’t give the centre-backs free headers, so we were able to recover the second ball.

“You can see Sean playing at a higher level. He is a really smart football player. Even the intelligence to get past the defender when it was an absolute and decisive penalty. It’s just smart.

“He got a push to the back of the head, but we don’t need to revisit that. Sean is doing some good things right now and he will only get better as the game goes on.