Seagulls survive
It would take a series of extraordinary results now to deprive Brighton of their senior status.
This was achieved by a gritty draw 1- 1 at Southampton last night. The Seagulls had the better of the first half, the old warhorse Glenn Murray flicked on a header, Neil Maupay worked an opening and slotted the ball home.
The Saints put Brighton under the cosh in the second half and Danny Ings justly restored parity.
Brighton had to dig deep into their considerable reserves of tenacity to hold out.
My man of the match was Adam Webster.
He came in for some stick not least from Graeme Souness on SKY. His proclivity to dribble out of defence worries the hell out of me but he showed he is an all-round defender with one fine tackle and interception.
Praise too for keeper Mattie Ryan whose breathtakingly agile tip onto the bar kept us in the game.
Over the years Southampton are a well run club who have sold on their best players mainly to LIverpool (Van Dyk, Mane, Clyne and Lallana) and to the big boys (Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers, Winjandrum) and defender Hojbjerg may well be the next to go but they occupy a safe mid-table position.
Can Brighton make that step up to join them and Newcastles and Burnleys, both of whom they play next? Better to concentrate on what they have done to date: finish above the bottom three in the mini-league in the relegation zone.
I have been asked what is my take on Sussex’s Jefra Archer.
He broke the clear rules and must accept the punishment. This said I don’t know why a coach for the players from Southampton to Old Trafford was not laid on.
In all the media storm over the omission of Stuart Broad for the first Test few have commented on his poor record on those hard Australian tracks.
Here Jofra Archer is indispensable and a bowler of hostility achieving speeds of 90 mph must be handled with care. Personally I thought his immediate loss should be considered more in that context by Ashley Giles, not the potential loss of revenue.
