Brighton draw again and Sussex CCC appoint

Everyone down here could not be more delighted with Brighton’s start but we should have beaten Everton and Southampton in our last two home games. So when Pargie called for a prediction against Stoke I advised him to put his tenner on a draw. The beginnings of cold dissuaded me from taking on the elements with a trek in the rain to the Amex and I stayed in the warm in front of the box for the SKY broadcast.

I am very much in the ‘be there’ camp: I like to met my mates, savour the atmosphere – particularly Brighton emerging from the tunnel to Good Old Sussex by the Sea – and dislike the betting ads and other distractions of the SKY broadcast. The programme began at 7 but the analysts, notably Jamie Carragher, were more intent on pushing gizmos and bombarding you with stats on Sean Dyche and the real background  to the match did not begin till 7-45.

For the first time the Lewis Dunk/Shaun Duffy combo at the heart of the defence did not come good and both were responsible for the 2 Stoke goals.

For the first Dunk, normally an immaculate blocker, was in the wrong position (back to the attacker) and for the second Duffy did not deal with the cross.

Although Stoke have had an expensive makeover of overseas players its the same old physical style epitomised by Ryan Shawcross, raw boned, tough, uncompromising that we know and don’t love. The key moment was Shawcross bringing down Glenn Murray in the box but ref Lee Mason did not award a penalty when it clearly was one. All he had to do was consult his linesman. A draw was alright but with Manchester United , Liverpool and Spurs coming up next and a narrow divide between top and bottom of the division we could have done with three points.

Over at Hove, Sussex CCC have appointed Gillespie as chief coach.

That is a good move as the ex-Aussie speedster earned his stripes at Yorkshire as coach. In the glorious decade of the noughties when Sussex won 3 championships they had 6 things going for them: the money from the Spen Carma legacy (£16m); a superb coach in Peter Moores; strong leadership on the field in Chris Adams; the magic of Mushtaq Ahmed who took 100 wickets; the run machine that was Murray Goodwin; a cadre of strong and reliable county players like Richard Montgomerie , James  Kirtley, Marin-Jenkins and Tony Cottey.

All of these elements have been missing these past few years but at least we now have a much respected coach.