Ruben is schooled in rivalry
RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK found out in training this week what beating Brighton tonight at the Amex will mean to his Crystal Palace team-mate in tonight’s M23 derby.
Loftus Cheek discovered the full impact when somebody asked Wilfried Zaha ‘How much do you hate Brighton on a scale of one to 10?’ Zaha replied: “11 out of 10.”
Tonight will be the first time the clubs meet in the top flight since April 18, 1981, when Brighton won 3-0 at Palace.
“A few of the players have been educating me on the rivalry, and I know it has become a massive game. I didn’t know much about it before,” said Loftus-Cheek, who is on loan from Chelsea.
“What Wilf said told me everything. He just said the two teams don’t like each other, so now of course I’m really looking forward to it.”
Zaha has grown up with the rivalry, has had good days and bad days against the Seagulls, and said: “I got stick even in the warm-ups, so I’m looking forward to playing them again. The atmosphere in these matches is crazy. I can’t compare it to anything. As soon as you step out on to the pitch
FANS’ VIEW OF THE M23 DERBY
ALAN WARES
Co-presenter of The Albion Roar radio programme and podcast. The rivalry started in 1974. Malcolm Allison had arbitrarily changed Palace’s nickname from Glaziers to Eagles and when they played down here Albion fans, especially those who drank in the Bosun pub, answered the chants of ‘Eagles’ with ‘Seagulls’ and the club later adopted it as the official crest.
But it really took off in 1976 when Alan Mullery and Terry Venables were the rival managers. After an FA Cup second-round replay loss Mullery threw a fiver down and said: “Palace are not worth that.” And it intensified from there. They were geographically the closest club to us and we got promoted together twice, in 1977 and 1979. We’ve beaten them three times out of four in the top flight but a 5-0 defeat at Selhurst in 2002 and the play-off semi-final in 2013 still smart, and you’d have to say they still have the bragging rights.
CHRIS WATERS
Board member of the Crystal Palace Supporters’ Trust There are clubs located closer to Selhurst Park but there is no doubt they are our biggest rivals and this was the first fixture Palace fans looked for, ahead of Manchester United, Arsenal and everyone else.
This is definitely the game we most want to win. We’ve beaten a number of big teams this year – Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool – but beating Brighton would mean more than anything else.
Some of the roots of the rivalry are lost in the mists of time and there are lots of myths about it, but we all know, that among other things, it involves Alan Mullery crumpling up a five pound note in the mid-Seventies.
its game on, and I’m sure we will all be very focused on that.
“All the players know the importance of it by now, and we do speak about it among ourselves. Everyone is well aware how big a game it is.”
The fierce rivalry between the clubs began in the mid-1970s but although Palace won their last meeting in the 2013 playoff semi-final, Brighton, in their first season in the Premier League, have the whip hand in their four top division meetings, with three wins and a draw. Roy Hodgson’s bottom-of-the-table side have yet to win a point or score away from home this season and the Palace manager said: “Wilf has been at the club a long time so he feels it more, but I won’t have to talk to him about getting too involved.
“I won’t be having a word with him about the match. Wilf has got us out of a hole in our last few matches and we want him to keep doing that.
“I know full well he’ll be trying his level best to continue his form. Brighton fans are a bit lively, so we won’t have to worry about the atmosphere. They, like us, prefer to play football, so we are not talking about intimidation here. But there will be an extra buzz.”
But striker Glenn Murray will not celebrate if he scores against his former club – and Seagulls fans will not be surprised.
Murray left Brighton for Palace in May 2011 and scored for the Eagles in the next meeting between the clubs four months later but showed no emotion.
He did not celebrate either of his two goals at the Amex when on loan to Reading on Boxing Day 2014.
“I had some great years at Palace, got supported really well by the fans,” said Murray, speaking to Seagulls TV.
“They were patient with me in my first year and welcomed me back with open arms when I had been out on loan at Reading.
“Through having four fantastic years there, I celebrate, no.”
Murray scored 44 league goals for Palace over four seasons before Alan Pardew sold him to Bournemouth. He rejoined Brighton in 2016 and scored 23 times to help fire the Seagulls to promotion.
And Brighton manager Chris Hughton knows he can count on Murray to keep cool in a white-hot derby atmosphere. He said: “He’s intelligent enough and experienced enough to know that he has to divorce himself from the emotions.
“We need calm heads and we need him to do the role that he
has given us.” or five wouldn’t