Birmingham 1 Brighton 2

The Seagulls after this victory are now 8 points ahead of Reading in third place and set on the promotion so cruelly denied last season.

Alan Tanner posed the question after we spoke after both our games last night why did I think Brighton are doing so well? I gave him two linked explanations: Chris Hughton and the spirit of the side.

Chris took over from Sami Hyppia and a struggling team. Hyppia was the classic appointment of a fine player who knew little of the division. Generally managers who understand and have experience of the division do best which makes the sacking of Gary Rowett at Birmingham and the appointment of Gainfranco Zola all the more baffling. In his first  season Chris could do no more than ensure Brighton’s safety which he did. In the second he strengthened the side with Kayal, Knockaert, Skalak, Bong, Sidwell and Rosenior and this season he addressed the perennial striking problem with the acquisition on loan of Glenn Murray who has bagged 13 goals. More controversially he acquired Shane Duffy from Blackburn when he already had Huhnemeier and Godston as reliable defenders but the Dunk/Duffy central pairing is the cornerstone of the side.

The team spirit is first rate exemplified by the lads going over to France to give support to Antony Knockaert at the funeral of his father. In recent games, notably Fulham at home, we have been outplayed but came away with the points. Last night Birmingham took the lead as Fulham did. Knockaert equalised. Instead of settling for one point Brighton threw everything forward at the end and Glenn Murray scored in the final minute of extra time. This is typical of the never say die spirit. I do not see such spirit in the bigger clubs like Aston Villa, Fulham and Norwich. We also have the advantage over such clubs who may speculate in the January window that we have 3 first teamers of ability in Solly March, Kayal and Liam Rosenior to return from injury.

I believe Brighton will go up but in predicting this there is a sadness for me. How many of the team are good enough for the Premier? If we get off to bad start will Chris come under pressure and be sacked as he was at Newcastle and Norwich after achieving promotions? Will we lose that special spirit and the architect of promotion to players that move around like racecourses or a so called bigger name manager? As Alan  said – get up first and then worry.