Gross strike boosts Brighton survival bid
THEY seem determined to take this to the wire, Brighton and Hove Albion. No matter how eager Cardiff City are to usher them to Premier League safety — and losing to relegated Fulham in a showdown game is pretty much tantamount to unconditional surrender — Brighton can’t quite take the hint.
Where would the excitement be in that? What tension is there in comfortable survival?
No, Brighton seem resolved to make this a fair fight and keep Cardiff in the race to the bitter end.
Offered the chance to as good as secure survival following Cardiff’s defeat at Craven Cottage, they declined to record their first League win since early March, despite the fact they were taking on Newcastle, a team now safe, secure and you would imagine with less desperation about them.
Instead, Brighton proceeded to make their opponents look like Premier League masters, as they puffed their way nervously through an uninspiring first half when Ayoze Perez’s strike had the visitors 1-0 to the good. To Brighton’s credit, they roused themselves for the second half.
And they made some significant progress: a goal was scored, Pascal Gross heading in their first for seven games, a run that looked like sending them into a tailspin towards the Championship.
So a precious point was gleaned. With that breezy seaside music piped out across the PA at the end, you could almost imagine that safety was in sight.
With an away trip to Arsenal and Manchester City at home to come, you can only imagine they will glean one more at best. But 36 points may well be enough, even if Cardiff do at least have hope.
As the clock turned to 90 minutes, it seemed Brighton’s big moment had come. Anthony Knockaert swung in a cross and it almost hung as Glenn Murray climbed to meet it at the far post.
This he has done so many times before. It looked as though the iconic forward would meet it, head it down and spark the unadulterated celebration.
Yet on this occasion, he directed the ball over the bar, grasping his head immediately, aghast at the enormity of the miss.
It might have been a game that no-one particularly wanted to lose but for a period it also seemed to be one in which neither team was prepared to take the initiative to win.
Brighton hadn’t scored in 556 minutes in the League prior to kick-off and it was obvious they weren’t about to be transformed into a gung-ho attacking frenzy because of the opportunity Cardiff had offered.
BRIGHTON (4-4-2): Ryan 6.5; Bruno, 6 Duffy 6.5, Dunk 6, Bernardo 6; Gross, 6.5 Stephens, 5.5 Kayal 5.5 (Bissouma 48min, 6), Izquiredo 5 (Knockaert 66, 6.5); Murray, 6.5 Andone 5 (March 46, 7). Booked: Bissouma, Andone. Subs (not used): Button, Bong, Locadia, Burn.
NEWCASTLE (3-4-3): Dubravka 6.5; Schar, 6.5 Fernandez, 6 Dummett 7; Ritchie, 6.5 Hayden, 6 Shelvey 6 (Ki 73, 6), Manquillo 6; Atsu 6.5 (Muto 81), Rondon 7, Perez 7 (Kenedy 33, 6). Booked: Dummett, Ritchie, Muto. Subs (not used): Darlow, Diame, Yedlin, Barreca Referee: M Dean 6.