Brighton 3 Nottingham Forest 0
The Seagulls maintained their solid start to the season after holding Derby to a goalless draw at the Ipro and following this with a 3-0 thumping of their East Midland rivals last night. John Pargiter called and I advised him the betting moves are Anthony Knockaert first goal and any time scorer (8-1 and 3-1) and 3-1 for the score.
Glenn Murray has been acquired on loan from Bournemouth. Glenn was with us in the Gus Poyet era and he sold him controversially to Crystal Palace. He is an untidy striker but a prolific one with a tally of one in two games. Dale Stephens,integral to the success of last season, is the subject of a £7m bid from Burnley. This is a a difficult call, he will be out of contract and can go for free at the end of the season so it makes financial sense but to lose him so close to the end of the window is a great blow to our chances this season.
It proved a merry game with chances at both ends. I could see why Forest conceded 3 goals against Button as their defence looked distinctly leaky. It took time to exploit this and who did so from a cross but Anthony Knockaert. I soon had a delighted Pargie texting me. With score at 3-0 with two more from Murray we were both hoping for an away goal but despite several potential opportunities it never came.
The only two blights on the night were that there was no sign of tandem between Murray and Tomer Hemed up front and more worryingly a late injury to keeper David Stockdale that had him limping and supported by the coaching staff off the pitch. “Surely Forest must score now “texted Pargie but did not manage one shot on keeper Lewis Dunk as we had had used all our subs.
Finally a word on the rail dispute. Up till 4.00pm there were no trains from Brighton station to Falmer to convey supporters so many took the live tv option. I mentioned this to friend of mine who took the train. I said I doubted that – as RMT claimed – their strike had public support and their real concern was preservation of jobs and outmoded practices not passenger safety. He agreed and told me at Pride weekend a banner of RMT urging support was roundly booed.
