Brighton 1-1 Villa. Jan 18th.
With all due respect, Brighton & Hove Albion are a club that ghosted into the Premier League unnoticed a few seasons back and still hang around like a bad smell. They’re a bit like Bournemouth and Burnley, they’ve had their time in the sun and really ought to do the decent thing by making way for heavyweights like Leeds and Forest. Time will tell, but with Brighton stuttering in their efforts to stay afloat, while the aforementioned battle it out at the Championship’s summit, there’s a chance Brighton may become one of the three teams Villa need below them come the end of the season, so today’s game was crucial.
For the third game in succession we weren’t able to field a striker, a ludicrous scenario for a club to be in. With Wesley injured, Kodja sold and Hogan out on loan, we had no number nine, so played the ineffective El Ghazi upfront instead, who was predictably poor. Toothless in attack, we needed to be robust in defence but allowed Brighton to saunter through our rearguard just before the break to score the only goal of the first half. Things were looking bleak.
The second half had us huffing and puffing with no indication that we’d blow the house down until out of the blue, our season’s standout player, Jack Grealish, thundered a left foot volley into the net following a fine cross by Luiz and the packed away end went mental. There were fifteen minutes left for Brighton to retaliate but they struggled to make any impact until a late shot resulted in a wonder save from our debutant keeper, Pepe Reina.
An away draw at Brighton might not seem much to write home about but when both teams are scrapping for every point, it’s as important to deny your opposition a win as it is to win yourself. A draw was well deserved and Grealish’s goal will live long in the memory.
For the third game in succession we weren’t able to field a striker, a ludicrous scenario for a club to be in. With Wesley injured, Kodja sold and Hogan out on loan, we had no number nine, so played the ineffective El Ghazi upfront instead, who was predictably poor. Toothless in attack, we needed to be robust in defence but allowed Brighton to saunter through our rearguard just before the break to score the only goal of the first half. Things were looking bleak.
The second half had us huffing and puffing with no indication that we’d blow the house down until out of the blue, our season’s standout player, Jack Grealish, thundered a left foot volley into the net following a fine cross by Luiz and the packed away end went mental. There were fifteen minutes left for Brighton to retaliate but they struggled to make any impact until a late shot resulted in a wonder save from our debutant keeper, Pepe Reina.
An away draw at Brighton might not seem much to write home about but when both teams are scrapping for every point, it’s as important to deny your opposition a win as it is to win yourself. A draw was well deserved and Grealish’s goal will live long in the memory.
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