A VIEW FROM WEST STAND LOWER

SkyBET Championship

22nd February 2014

Brighton and Hove Albion (0)1
Ulloa 78

Wigan Athletic (1)2
McArthur 21
McCann 50

Attendance: 27,490
League Postion: 8th

The Club's recent announcement of a loss of nearly £15m in the last trading year was as unwelcome, if not totally unexpected, to Albion fans as a clip around the face with a wet haddock. At least it had the effect of silencing the social media chatter about transfer window signings. Now we know why all the income from the sale of Bridcutt, Barnes and El-Abd was not immediately reinvested.  What's more by this time next year the loss will have to be almost halved with further savings the following year if the club is to fall in line with the Financial Fairplay Rules. If you look at the accounts there was a welcome increase in all the income streams which, sadly, were more than wiped out by the outlay on players.  

Now we know what lay behind Poyet's coded comments about the club having reached the ceiling and not matching his ambitions. He was no fan of FFP and made his views clear. If the Albion had a season of trying to buy their way into the Premiership it must have been last year. 8

The East Stand enjoys a some early Spring sunshine

of the team that played against Palace in the Play Offs were brought in by Poyet last year and no doubt the wages of Bridge and Hammond and the transfer of Ulloa accounted for a lot of the high player expenditure. 

I would guess it was mentioned to Gus that the days of wine and roses were over and the future depended on coaching through young talent. I would equally guess this did not particularly appeal to Gus hence his eventual departure and arrival of new coaching staff. Oscar is prepared to give young players a chance in a way Gus was perhaps not prepared to and, hence, we have seen Ince establish himself as a first team regular and March and Forster-Caskey now first team squad regulars. Dunk was outstanding against Hull and it would not be a surprise to see Walton as the first choice keeper in a season or two. The days of large trading in the transfer market appear to be over.  The future is all about home baking!

Returning to FFP it is, of course, not totally fair as it does not appear to apply to all clubs equally. Some appear to have found various ways around the new rules while for teams relegated from the Premiership it is merely a gnat's bite compared to the bungs they receive from the Premiership as a reward for relegation.

By a quirk of the fixture calendar last season's relegated trio are visiting the Amex in successive home games starting with Wigan this weekend. They arrived with £60m tucked in their pocket, as will Reading and QPR, which has enabled them to keep the bullk of their Premiership players. 

Wigan, although they enjoy poor home gates even by Championship standards, have a team core of physically strong players, very mobile who make few mistakes. They keep the ball well and in Uwe Rosler have found a manager able to add some Germanic steel and organisation.

Wigan arrived on the south coast with a defensive mindset. They sat tight and awaited events hoping the team required to do all the pressing would make a mistake.

After the Albion dominated the opening 20 minutes with several half chances coming and going Upson made his first mistake of the season by giving the ball away deep in his own half with no cover around. McArthur sprinted away and gleefully smashed the visitor's first shot of the game beyond the exposed Kusczak.

To their credit the Albion responded immediately and Stephens came agonisingly close to opening his account with a fierce shot that smashed against the underside of the bar and bounced away just the wrong side of the line. Prior to that Greer, Ulloa,

Rodriguez and Stephens (again)  all had chances. David Lopez and Bruno were combining well down the right and putting over some excellent crosses and were nearly matched by Ward on the other side.

However, as half time approached the Albion began to run out of ideas and the game appeared to be dying on its feet. Despite some creative play in midfield, Wigan showed little intent of getting into the Albion's penalty area.

The second half started with the arrival of the old Albion failing - sloppy play at the start of the half. The ball was given away unnecessarily, Wigan won a corner which was headed powerfully home by McCann. It was very like the early second half goal conceded against Nottingham Forest.

The Albion now had a mountain to climb given they have not scored more than one goal in a League game this year. Buckley and LuaLua came on and were evetually joined by Obika as the home side went for it. Chances came and went. Orlandi and LuaLua drove narrowly wide and a succession of tempting crosses were either missed or hacked away. Buckley in particular was causing problems as he ghosted passed defenders. 

In the 78th minute an Orlandi corner was headed down by Upson and following some penalty area ping pong the ball was thumped home by Ulloa. The Albion then went in search of a deserved equaliser. Al-Habsi turned aside a shot from Buckley which missed the outstretched foot of Ulloa by inches. Ince drove inches wide from distance with Al-Habsi just a spectator. Obika broke into the area and chose to shoot rather than lay the ball back to 3 incoming and unmarked players on the edge of the area. Al-Habsi gratefully smothered the ball.

For the Albion this game lay on the scale somewhere between robbery and mugging. In the cold light of day they enjoyed 63% of the possession, had 23 shots compared to 7 and 10 corners to 4. Wigan scored with their only two on target efforts. No wonder Rosler punched the air on the final whistle.

There was not a lot between the teams but Wigan looked more solid, kept possession well and made fewer mistakes and

that is, of course, what the extra £60m buys a team. Just think what the outcome would have been if the Albion had access to similar funds.

MAGIC MOMENT: Buckley's shimmy as he ghosted passed defenders before sending Al-Habsi sprawling.

REFEREE WATCH: Mr. Boyeson is the sort of chap who gives refs a bad name. He treated us to a full repetoire of grand hand jestures for "play on" and "no penalty". He introduced us to a new one as he reminded Al-Habsi about time wasting. His moment of glory came when he appeared to have had enough of Al-Habsi's time wasting and ran half the length of the pitch to chat the matter over. Surely he would not go all that distance and not book him given he had already been warned? It comes as no surprise that they spoke, no card was produced and the ref then strolled back in to the Albion half and waved for play to restart. Despite this, and booking Beausejour for time wasting, only 4 extra minutes were played which barely covered the 6 substitutions and a few injuries. Perhaps he had a train to catch.

TREATMENT ROOM: Buckley now permanently stuck in the revolving door which at least allows him to get on the pitch for the odd 20 minutes. The hamstrung club has now been joined by March. As Hoskins get nearer the discharge desk CMS has been readmitted and Crofts can have no visitors until next season.  

ALTERNATIVE MAN OF THE MATCH: My award goes to Dale Stephens for his energy and tidy passing. He got up and down the pitch well, made few mistakes and was unlucky not to score.