A VIEW FROM WEST STAND LOWER

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 0

Birmingham City (1) 1
Burke (27)

Attendance: 26,121

I do not know what you do when you have finished your Amex pie and pint deal but I have a look down the team lists on the back page of the match programme. As my eye passed over the Brummy Boys' list of ex-Pompey players and yesterday's men I noticed the referee. Mr. Langford from the West Midlands. The West Midlands? If my geography serves me right isn't Birmingham the capital of the West Midlands Region? 

If things got tight in the game wouldn't the fans turn on the ref and accuse him of bias? Given all the refs available to the FA surely they could have found one from the West Country or East Anglia or even London. Perhaps this was a money saving venture by the FA - the ref comes down on the away team bus to save money. 

As it turned out we experienced our most hapless set of officials since last season's Burnley game. The ref did little to stop the visitor's time wasting which started immediately after half time or the persistent foul play in the final quarter of which LauLua was the main target nor could he control his flag happy linesmen who shot the flag up on every occasion. I recall that when the off side rule was changed a few years back linesmen (sorry assistant refs) were asked to give attackers the benefit of the doubt to promote attacking play. Clearly the memo did not get to John and Christopher. Some of the offsides in the second half looked very tight to me. Several times the ball appeared to strike the arm of defenders but Mr. Langford was not interested. He was better placed to see the ankle tap on LuaLua which could have brought a penalty. He waved away penalty appeals - perhaps he was distracted by thoughts of home. I sometimes suspect that in the Amex cauldron when the ref feels under pressure from the home crowd they adopt a "I will show them who is in charge persona" and give Brighton little in the 50/50s. 

In reality the Albion did not deserve to win the game even if they did not deserve to lose it. It was just a bad day at the office with too many regulars not cutting the mustard plus the injured trio being badly missed. 

We started with 6 of our League One regulars and some of last season's more unwelcome habits returned - slow build up from the back, forward passes going astray and giving the ball away in midfield. 

Brum City came with a plan and we played straight into their hands. Early on they looked suspect at the back but instead of playing with pace and power from the off we tapped the ball around patiently at the back allowing our visitors to put their 10 outfielder players behind the ball. Birmingham gained a foothold in the game and a long ball forward was headed to Chris Burke some 30 yards back who fired in one on the best goals the Amex has seen in its young life. 3 Kuszczaks could not have saved.

That was it as far and as shots on target were concerned for Birmingham and apart from a scrabbled save from Lita, Kuszcak could have sat in a deck chair for the second half and played patience. 

The Seagulls won the corner count 12-0, they dominated possession and countless crosses flew across the box. But in reality we rarely looked like scoring and the nearest came when Davies nearly headed into his own net. Butland was never made to show why he is England's number 2. 

Barnes was as anonymous as he was prominent against Millwall; Buckley could not weave his usual magic; Hammond had his least effective game; Dicker switched play cleverly from wing to wing but rarely forward; nobody possessed the killer forward pass to split the defence. We had neither the brawn or guile to undo the smash-the-ball-away-as-early-as-possible defenders. The delivery from set pieces was not up to the usual standard and Orlandi was badly missed. At least that part of the game improved with David Lopez's arrival. 

The player missed most was Mackail- Smith. His movement and harrying might have upset the defence but Dobbie is clearly not an out and out striker. He likes to come deep and collect the ball and I found myself reflecting how well he could play feeding CMS. Given that he has only played 70 mins for the development team this season he did not deserve the abuse he received from frustrated sections of the crowd as he tired. Together with CMS and an in form Buckley or LuaLua he could find us lots of goals. Let's hope on Tuesday we have some of the walking wounded back or it could be another frustrating evening. Perhaps Vicente will make a guest appearance!

And as for the ref? I wonder if he enjoyed the journey home in that rather nice Brum City coach.

Alternative Man of the Match: Quite rightly the main award went to Wayne Bridge who was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch but my award goes to Dobbie for showing us glimpses of what he might achieve when match fit and working with CMS