Seagulls see goals
Whilst Manchester City with their 13 point lead are turning the Premier race into a procession there is much excitement in the lower half where 7 points separate 10 teams.
Two of them Brighton and West Ham met at the Amex and the Seagulls emerged as clear winners 3-1.
Unified under a pragmatic manager with supporters realistic in their expectations, Seagulls are more than equipped for the fight. The general view is that 38 points will be sufficient.
In the next two games Brighton play Stoke and Swansea. They have winnable home games against Huddersfield and Leicester before a tricky final two v Manchester United at home and Liverpool at Anfield, the scoring problem has been addressed if not resolved by getting in Jurgen Locadia from PSV and Leo Ulloa who scored one in very two game for the Seagulls before moving to Leicester. Ironically Brighton scored 3 without a contribution of these two and the chip from Izquiedo was exquisite.
I sometimes rail against our car phobic council and their inability to provide other efficient and comfortable transport. I suffered from this yesterday.
The 23 bus goes directly from my place to the Universities which is a short walk from the ground. Yet on match days there are only two buses per hour. I acquired the app, checked the timetable, and saw there was one at 1.10. I duly took up position in the sleeting rain at the bus stop at 1.00 but there was no indicator of the 23 on the bus stop sign or app.
I therefore changed plans to take the #7 to the station and thence the train to the ground. After paying the fare I saw the #21 arrive which changed its sign to #23 and, on checking my app, saw this was the bus. At the station I boarded the train.
It was full of cheery Brighton fans and I saw the guy adjacent to me was diligently reading the editorial of The Spectator.
To digress for a moment. I read the Spectator myself and there was a well argued piece by Rod Liddle in which he exposed the hypocrisy of the Phil Neville debate.
The England woman goalkeeper was quoted as saying Neville did not understand woman’s problems but if man had said a woman was unemployable because of these problems cited (the menstrual cycle being one) he would be excoriated.
Anyway the journey proceeded uneventfully till the first stop at London Road when a group of youths boarded. Through their chat of “Irons! Irons!” I appreciated they were West Ham supporters and a frisson of fear was apparent as they started made homophobic comments on Bent Brighton.
Tony Henry West Ham’s director of recruitment has been dismissed from West Ham for some disgraceful comments about African players. The fact is no players likes to be omitted – nor should they be – and you cannot characterise troublemakers as just Africans. I have little doubt that the fascists of Newham privately agree with Henry.
As this loathsome group sang their revolting songs, I thought to myself how inaccurate this image of West Ham as cuddly warm East End community club is. Their hooligan gang the Inter City Firm was one of the most violent and their fans can mix it with best or worst. They also like to think of themselves as a repository of cultivated football values. Moore, Peters, Brooking and Devonshire are long gone and a succession of northern mangers like Allardyce and now David Moyes espouse what might be euphemistically called the pragmatic approach. I saw no football from them at all in the match.
Prior to the game I had a few words with Luke Wright. I read his interview in the Cricket Weekly in which he extolled Jefra Archer who went for £800,000 in the IPL auction. When in international sport the flag of convenience flies so readily we all agreed it was surprising the speedster who can bowl at over 90mph and is more than useful batter has to wait for 2022 to play for England.
My neighbour in the Amex who has car parking ticket always gives me a lift home. It is true such a ticket is gold dust as there is no facility for cars not even a taxi to collect at the Amex.
The only problem is that due to inadequate stewarding we had to wait in the car fpark or some 45 minutes and I did not make it home till 7.00. My total travelling time of a journey which there and back would at most 30 minutes was 2 1/2 hours.
I will be proposing the motion “This House believes sporting events are more comfortably watched at home …”
