A VIEW FROM WEST STAND LOWER

"It must be thought on. If it pass against us, we lose the better half of our possession;"

Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 1
Buckley (80)

Ipswich Town (1) 1
Murphy (27)

Attendance: 24,736

"We need a Plan B, Plan A is not working". No - this is not Ed Balls talking at the Labour Party Conference but the muttered whispers from the stands as Ipswich took the lead last night in a keenly fought draw in appalling weather. You could hear the thoughts of "here we go again" after half-an-hour as the confidence drained from the Albion players like sand through a hour glass.

This way for the Tractor Boys

This was a "Back to the Future" game. A repeat of last Saturday against Birmingham. Ipswich even turned up wearing their kit.

This blog needs to be perfectly balanced as my best friend is a tractor boy so for the sake of friendship let's deal with Ipswich first. They turned up with a plan which they nearly executed perfectly. Teams that come to the Amex and play get picked off just like Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday so to  prevent this visitors now fall behind the ball in great numbers as Brighton move forward cautiously, mark Bridcutt to prevent him being the midfield outlet, squeeze the space and try to hit a frustrated Albion on the break. While a draw was the right outcome on the balance of play Ipswich could have snatched this. Murphy nearly scored before he actually did from an almost identical move. Kuszczak saved from Murphy just after half time as he again got in behind on the Albion's right and he saved again just before the end. Ipswich were well organised and often first to the ball. They certainly had more physical prescence than the home team and it was diffcult to see why they are second from bottom. Chopra, before he tired, and his replacement Scotland caused the Albion more trouble on their own than Barnes and Dobbie managed.

I suspect if Ipswich played to this plan at home they would lose and only drawing some of your away games will not garner many points. 

As for the Albion they have been given due notice of how visitors will now play this season and it is up to them to come up with a plan to avoid the 90 minutes of frustration we witnessed last night. 

In the last 2 games we have moved away from the more high tempo style that marked the first 7 games of the season. This might be because CMS is not available to creat space with his running or Bruno to give an outlet down the right. Playing at bearly walking pace from the back only to hit the ball to an opponent or a tightly marked colleague has supporters pulling their hair out. Getting into mazy passing patterns only to lose out in the mass of legs and bodies is equally a route to premature baldness.

The good times will return

There were, of course, postives last night. The return of Orlandi gave us much needed creativity. He was behind all that was good in the first half and nearly scored from a long range swinging free kick. Dobbie is better behind the main striker and might feel he should have scored one or two on the night. I feel sure that once he scores many more will follow but we need to see him with CMS. Bridcutt put in his usual excellent shift and the appearance of Buckley and Dicker galvanised a late come back.

Games turn on chances and the Albion could, and should, have been one up before the big screen clock had ticked to one minute. Early space in the visitor's box was exploited by Dobbie and Barnes but LauLau put an excellent chance the wrong side of the post. If that had gone in it could have been a very different game. Again before Ipswich scored Dobbie found himself with space in the penalty area but hit the ball straight at Loach. 

In the second half as the Albion chased the game Dobbie saw a pile driver take a massive deflection which fortunately for Roach just fell the wrong side of his right hand post with him up by the left hand one. LauLau stung the goalie's hands with another firmly struck shot but Orlandi could not control the rebound. With almost the last touch of the game Barnes was inches away from an excellent Bridge cross. 

This is the way to Brighton Gus but not as you know it!

In 2 games the Albion have racked up 19 corners but rarely threatened from any of them. 

In the end Calderon made up for letting Murphy get the wrong side of him for the visitor's goal by winning the ball just outside the penalty area and putting over the cross for Buckley to bundle in his second of the season. 

With CMS and Hoskins injured the lack of squad depth in the striking department has returned to haunt Gus over the last 2 games. He really does need somebody who can come on and hold the ball up for others and we have seen Lita, Chopra and Scotland show how it can be done over the last 4 days.

Despite a disappointing couple of games we are third and, hopefully, with the return of CMS, Bruno and Crofts the good old days of Millwall away will return.
 
My dream team would be: Kuszczak; Bruno, Greer, El-Abd, Bridge; Orlandi, Bridcutt, Crofts; Buckley, CMS and Dobbie. The bench reinforcements being Ankergren, Cauldron, Hammond, Vicente, Barnes, Dicker plus either David Lopez or LauLau. 

My personal alternative man of the match: Quite rightly the main award went to Orlandi but my personal favourite was Bridcutt for another all action display in poor conditions. He has batteries that put Duracell to shame.