Brighton 2 Ajax 0.

Were we to go back nearly 30 years, you would see Brighton struggling to survive and Ajax – with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar, Marco van Basten, Marc Overmars and Jan Lithanen – winning the European Cup.

That very good Ajax team broke up whilst the then homeless Brighton, thanks to Tony Bloom, built a new ground at Falmer and achieved Premier Status.

Last night they did not even meet as equals. Ajax are one from bottom of the Eredivisie, have just sacked their manager and looked quite ordinary whilst Brighton under Roberto de Zerbi are near the top of the Premiership.

In a dull opening Ajax could only defend in numbers and depth and the Seagulls finally broke through when Pedro poked home in the dying embers of the first half after the Ajax keeper failed to clear.

Andy Fata added a neatly-taken goal in the second half to achieve Brighton’s first ever win in Europe.

After the home defeat to AEK Athens and the draw at Marseilles group qualification is by no means certain.

Over at Sussex CCC, CEO Rob Andrew’s departure to the ECB will be announced today.

Oddly enough his greatest achievement was overseeing the development of an apartment block called ‘Tate’ by the main entrance and this was therefore a non-cricketing one.

He worked hard and guided Sussex through Covid but the dismantling of the first  team was not popular and he did not seem to fit into a sociable cricket club.